Hello! Wasn't that an instant classic? I think without a shadow of a doubt this'll go down as one of the best pure football matches in history. But seriously, with the position we're in we don't need flashy performances and tiki-taka football we need points; and thats exactly what we got from the game today.
The key game from our perspective (other than our game) was Rotherham v Wigan at the New York Stadium- and as I touched on in my Preview, Wigan do have the players to put a run together and while it is a win via Two Free-Kicks against Rotherham it will definitely enthuse the Wigan players, and with now 9 Games remaining they've closed the gap on us and Rotherham to 6 points.
I'm going to try and not turn this goal section into a rant- its something I've spoken about so many times this season I could probably just Copy & Paste it. Defending at Corners is such a fundamental part of Football- and its something we seem unable to do consistently. This time it was a Second Half corner which was eventually converted by Stevie May, and to put it bluntly it isn't good enough. I had hoped with the addition of Turner and the likelihood of Smith starting it would give us another dimension from both defending and attacking Set-Pieces, but it appears it'll be a slow burn if it is to have some effect. I saw a stat that Matt Smith now has 15 Goals in 19 Games- and he won't get many easier than the one he had today, it was a good finish; but had he not converted it I'd have shot him- I'd also like to praise Tunnicliffe for his work in the build to the goal because he kept going even when he went down and it was that kind of grittiness we've been lacking at times this season.
I thought all in all Bettinelli had a good game today. A seemingly common-theme for goals we concede is that Bettinelli in general can do very little for the goals we do concede- but he definitely made his mark on the game today with some good saves and a generally solid display.
The very limited eyes on the game today would have had one eye on Michael Turner and the impact he had on the team- and the defense specifically, and I thought he did really well. He's not the most technically sound player we've ever seen- but that's not what we brought him in for, we brought him in for his leadership qualities and his defensive steel of which he showed quite a lot of. Considering some of the displays we've seen this season it was almost good in a way to see someone have to change shirts because they've got blood on it because it shows they're getting in among it- which at times this season we simply haven't done. I thought Hutchinson was alright today, his passing is pretty woeful but from a defensive standpoint he is still a solid player- I personally would have had Bodurov in the team, but now Kit has picked Hutchinson for todays game I hope (barring injury) he sticks with that pairing for the rest of the season. Richards and Stafylidis had largely indifferent games today, Stafylidis to me will eventually turn into a Top Draw Left-Winger- he's a lot better offensively than defensively; and long-term if we do get him permanently I'd like to see us transition him into a role further up the pitch.
The Midfield we picked today was possibly the most defensive we could have had short of not having a midfield and playing 8 at the Back. We were set up for a 0-0 today- and we came out of the game with the Point in my opinion we were aiming for. I can only assume Bryan picked up a knock in training yesterday- or just didn't fancy going to Sheffield but all in all it wasn't the worst move in the world because as I'll speak about when it come to McCormack- while the pitch isn't an excuse for the result- some individual performance can perhaps be blamed on the pitch, and the Hillsborough pitch was pretty much the antithesis of Bryan Ruiz and his style of play. Now on to the players we did have on the pitch- and in general the midfield was solid today, which was exactly it was set-up to be. I do like Sean Kavanagh as a player, he's a really underrated technical player in my opinion and he does offer a lot to the team both defensively and offensively. Parker had a pretty indifferent game today, he put a good shift in- but there's seldom a Scott Parker performance where that isn't applicable. Hoogland has now played 3 Different Positions since he came back from injury- and I wish Kit would pick a position for him and stick to it- and of course if it were up to me that'd be in the DM Role. I've praised Tunnicliffe for his work in the build-up to the Smith goal and I thought he was really solid today, with the position we now find ourselves in we need a player like Tunnicliffe to battle away in Midfield.
McCormack has become such a wasteful player since his Hat-Trick against Forest. I think McCormack's performance today can be summarised nicely by him blowing the chance of a potential counter-attack to shoot from roughly 45-50 Yards out. Matt Smith of course scored the goal- just his presence up front is something we have been lacking for a while- it's stupid when you consider the number of times we've launched it up to Rodallega this season, and then when we start Smith we hardly ever put a cross in for him to sink his teeth into. That said Smith took his goal well- and in the position we're in we can't afford to lose a player like Smith on the form he's on.
As I said with reference to our Midfield we were setup for a Draw today in my opinion- so it was mission accomplished in that respect. I said it to an extent in my Preview but winning Home Games is a priority for us- and any points we pick up away from home are bonus points in my opinion. Especially when you consider two home games we have coming up relatively soon are Rotherham and Wigan.
Thanks for reading as always, this game wasn't one for the purists but as I was saying when we won against Reading and Forest we can't afford to choose how we pick up points with the position we're in- and every point we pick up could prove to be vital come the end of the Norwich game at the beginning of May. Stay Tuned for the blogs surrounding the Leeds game in our second of the Yorkshire Trio we're in the middle of- of which I wanted 4 points from, so 1 win from our next 2 and I'm happy. Thanks again for reading, and have a good Rest of the Weekend.
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