Hello! It's another Review, and this time we've gotten the 3 Points- which at the end of the day is all that really matters given the position we're in. It wasn't pretty, it definitely wasn't easy; but I think we can be pretty confident of safety now and start building for next season starting next week against Boro.
With no exaggeration whatsoever, in terms of a spectacle this ranks up there with some of the worst games I've ever seen- the pitch didn't help matters, but it was two teams devoid of any real quality watching the ball fly through the air and occasionally trying to head it on. So perhaps fittingly the only goal of the game came from a Cross & Header, I'll have my say about Sean Kavanagh's overall contribution to the game a bit later on- but credit where credit is due and he put in a quality ball and Smith got on the end of it and really directed the header to leave Lewis with no chance of saving. There was also a second goal that should've counted- it was the best bit of quality on show all day, the bloke in the Wig and the dress made a darting run into the box; robbed Bettinelli and showed a real poachers instinct with the Finish- forget Aden Flint, he's gone down to second on my signings for the summer list after the display of sheer quality from him today.
Speaking of said man, Betts has gotten incredibly lucky as he said it best he's "pulled a worldy"- but enough about his extra curricular activities; Bettinelli had a weird game- we could've been a goal down after about 3 Minutes when we were sliced open; then we got onto the 2nd Half, we could have conceded if not for a Jazz Richards clearance after Bettinelli was clearly fouled in the box- but it wasn't given and as we discussed in the Sheff. Wednesday & Leeds Reviews, play to whistle; then Bettinelli had nothing to do until the last minute when he pulled off a great save to keep us in the lead from a Blackpool volley. I think that save today to basically guarantee safety has all but confirmed him as our Player of the Season, that may not have been a highly contested award this season- but he still more than deserves the title.
Also if you didn't already see it (and I only saw it because it was pointed out to me) the Telegraph are now linking Bettinelli with Chelsea after Mourinho showed up against Rotherham- which if you read my Preview I put up on Thursday was exactly what I theorised, so seeing as someone from the Telegraph clearly reads these- Hi, I'd appreciate some sort of credit next time mate.
I'm not sure what to say about our defensive efforts today- it could have been an awful lot worse had we conceded rather than have our post rattled after 3 Minutes, and we were properly carved open for that chance- and the one not so long after. However in general we looked as solid as the makeshift defence we've ended up with to see out the season is going to look- and while Blackpool had a lot of half chances after the two early chances and the chance late on Bettinelli wasn't really tested. Jazz Richards once again grew into the game- first half I thought he was poor, he looked really frantic- and unsure of himself, which is alright (with respect) if we're not playing Blackpool; the one team where if you play with any semblance of quality you'll unlock them and have a field day. As I said in my Preview my opinion on players is relative to the opposition- as such I'm still not entirely sold on Burn, the Strikers him and Turner have faced have hardly been of the Top Championship standard- that said he did reasonably well today against another poor Striker in Gary Madine- the same can be said for Turner; I'm not sure if I'll have viewed it different if I were a neutral and wasn't on edge every single time a player I hardly knew anything about got the ball on the Halfway line, but with the way we've defended this season I was always on edge even when I perhaps shouldn't have been. Husband had another mixed game, This wasn't a game for anyone without a distinctive "physical presence"- but he did well enough when he did get on the ball.
This was never going to be a game where the Midfield were the stars of the show so to speak- and I think Kit had that in mind with the selection- as with the Wigan selection I didn't agree with the Selection because in my opinion we should've tried to take the ball to Blackpool right from the first whistle and force mistakes from them, but Kit set us up to play through Smith and the Midfield was picked as much as anything else for us to avoid getting caught on the break. Kavanagh did put the cross in for the goal, unfortunately that's where the positives end for him, he was poor, panicky and just generally bad when he got on the ball- he had one good run not long after the goal and apart from that I can't remember him doing anything I'd label good- he was outmuscled on the ball far too often- and his passed (not aided by bobbles) outside of 5 yard or less passes rarely made contact with the intended target. I think his game can be summed up by the Shot (or at least I think it was a shot) in the Second Half that went entirely sideways when he had a good opportunity to end it. It seems I'm becoming a broken record with Tunnicliffe, I'm not expecting the world from him- in terms of technical ability he's on the low end of the scale, but what he does do and does well is work for the team and he did that again today. Guthrie was so "meh" today, he was one of the few players that on occasion tried to pass it along the floor- but we were set up so negatively in terms of style of play we rarely put together any kind of move involving a string of passes- and Guthrie isn't capable of much else to be blunt. Hoogland was another player who put in a shift today- he's definitely pulled himself together in the last two games and he's turned in some better performances after he was leisurely jogging back against Wigan just over a week ago.
McCormack was pretty much the only player who looked like making something happen on the ground today- while he didn't score he was by far the most dangerous player on either team, and with very poor service he still managed to either set-up for other people or for himself a handful of chances chief of which were late on when Woodrow should have done better with his 1 on 1's. Smith did pretty much what was expected of him today, I'm pretty sure it was his first headed goal for us- and as I said while McCormack looked the most dangerous- Smith was the most likely to grab a goal for us given the style in which we were playing. Other than the goal Smith's contributions were almost solely of the aerial duel variety- and (I haven't seen Kit's comments yet) I hope he hasn't gone off with anything other than a tweak because he's definitely become one of our important players since he's come back.
Yet again Kit made just the one sub- despite the rather half-hearted attempts from the crowd to get a Bryan Ruiz chant going (imagine Bryan on that Pitch). It was an enforced on as well with Woodrow coming on for Smith. Woodrow should have no doubt done better late on when we were on the Counter Attack he's a lot more mobile than Smith and him hassling the defenders was exactly what we needed in the later stages of the game. Personally I would have brought Fofana on for Kavanagh or Guthrie for the last 10 Minutes, but it's not worth doing a lot of "I would have's" when we've won.
The performance today was a long way away from perfection- but not matter what the performance is like you get the same number of points at the end of the game, as such I think we can say it was job done; and as I've said we're all but safe now with the Millwall draw today and we can look ahead to next season now- and pick the teams accordingly now- it may be a bit too much to ask for a whole XI of Academy Graduates but I'd definitely like to see a lot more now if nothing else than to give them some game-time.
Thanks again for reading as always, we're pretty much at the Finish Line now- and with it is still mathematically possible we've got a bit of a cushion both in terms of points and place now we've ascended to the lofty heights of 18th and while I don't want to tempt fate I think we can say we're safe now; it's been a long time coming, but I think we've limped over that safety line now- Thank God. I'll talk about it a bit more in my Boro Preview and a lot more after Norwich because I don't want these Fulham posts to just stop once the Season is Over and I'll try and get some different types of posts up over the Summer whether they be Transfer, Managerial or simply Opinion as the core of it. Anyway that's for next week- we've gotten the 3 Points today, and going into the game that's all I could have asked for.
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