Hello! It's the first midweek Review of the season, and also the first Review of a Win for the season. I'm happy that we've won, if I wasn't then I should be supporting us- but now we've played a team like we have tonight I'm expecting us to take the Carling Cup seriously this season unlike last season where we were full strength against Doncaster and proceeded to rotate everyone out against Derby. I suppose the gamble of playing a team like we did can only really be gauged as to whether it worked or not by about 5pm on Saturday when we'll know the Brighton result. I made my point clear in the Preview yesterday that I wanted the League to be our only priority, and I still stand by that- but we've won so for now I'm happy.
The Kacaniklic goal was really well worked on our part to the point Kacaniklic couldn't really miss. The goal was exactly why Matt Smith was brought on in the first place, Smith coming on changed the game and his part in the build to the goal can't be left out and via Tom Cairney it fell to Pringle and it just was a quality pass into Kacaniklic who would have been talked about more were he to miss given the position he found himself in.
I suppose one of the big talking points from a team selection standpoint was Bettinelli starting. I'm still not committing one way or the other with regard to whether I think Bettinelli will stay, but I will say he didn't look like his head was elsewhere tonight and generally looked solid apart from one moment in the first half where he dropped a cross which thankfully came to nothing. I'm not necessarily disappointed to see Lonergan go out of the team for the game tonight because he has come in to be a #2- but I did want to see him again tonight. Especially for a Cup Game I didn't necessarily think he deserved to get dropped- but I'm happy to see Bettinelli back in the team and hopefully he stays there for Saturday.
I don't know if I jinxed it when I said Grimmer should be saved for Saturday in my Preview, but it's such a shame- and it's never nice to see a player stretchered off. That's probably the main talking point from the game today of which there were very few and I suppose all we can do is hope for the best when it comes to how long Grimmer's out for. The rest of the Defence was fine, some people may have differing opinions but I don't think we were ever properly stretched as a Defensive unit today as such it's not necessarily fair to say one way or the other on any of the Defenders. I will say I was pretty happy with Voser today, but I wouldn't call the game today a massive test for him. Hutchinson and Bodurov were generally fine, We actually look like we've got a Spine this season when it comes to defending as a unit and that can only help.
I thought Jamie O'Hara was different class tonight. He did fade a bit towards the end, but I wouldn't say that's a big talking point at this stage of the season. O'Hara on a Free could seriously turn into our best bit of business in quite a long time. Speaking of Free Transfer signings, Ben Pringle looked quality tonight as well. Pringle and Kacaniklic on the Wings actually looked really dangerous, and it may just be wishful thinking on my part with regard to wanting to see Tom Cairney play Centrally but I definitely wouldn't be against them being our starting wingers. Speaking of Cairney I think he's still finding his feet in a Fulham shirt- and I doubt his positional uncertainty is helping matters where that's concerned. That said he definitely grew into the game and it was capped off with just a perfect pass through to Pringle in the build to the Kacaniklic goal. The Kacaniklic debate I think will rage on for a while this season, he's a player who can definitely do a job for us- but it's a just a case of fitting everyone in. I still say our team is perfect for a 4-3-3 at the minute, but clearly Kit doesn't see it that way and we move on.
Ross McCormack is a strange one sometimes. I think he just needs that one goal to really spark at the start of a season regardless of where it comes from. We of course had the Brentford goal last season and he's yet to really get going. That said he was still without a doubt one of our more threatening players and we can't not have him in the team. I did see a thing today about us offering a new deal to McCormack to fend off Boro and Norwich- but I really doubt there's anything to it and it's just paper talk. Cauley Woodrow was pretty ineffective today. I'm not against us playing him because he has shown glimpses of being a good player for us- but in the immediate term I was really disappointed he got the nod over Dembele and him pretty much doing nothing hasn't exactly helped his cause.
The Subs we made were all decent for different reasons. As already said Smith coming on combined with the Jack Grimmer injury/tackle is pretty much what changed the game. A player like Smith coming on will never not cause problems for the Defence, and in that respect he'll always have a role to play. I'm still not convinced whether he's a 90 Minute Player- but at least for now we don't really have a better option and he's getting the job done so it's not worth getting into at least for now. Jazz Richards coming on was a necessity and he looked solid when he did but as already said this wasn't a game where our Defenders were fully tested. The mysterious European Mattila had a cameo, in the very limited time he had I was pretty happy with what I saw. He wasn't a stand out by any means but he looked solid and definitely not afraid to get stuck-in so all in all he looked fine.
Overall it was a win, and a pretty solid one. It was by no means a great game- in fact it was pretty bad throughout. That said we got the job done and we've gotten a win under our belts so I'm happy. Apart from one chance Wycombe had in the First Half I never felt we were even in danger of conceding, but truthfully a Wycombe fan can say the same- it just happened that we took our big chance and Wycombe didn't which I suppose highlights the gap in quality between the two teams.
Thanks for reading as always, we now turn our attention back to the Transfer Market and I'm sure we'll get a bunch of rumours flying- Just quickly we've been linked with Tim Ream who I'd be all for signing and I can't imagine Bolton wouldn't sell provided we put in a decent bid given the financial situation they're in. I saw another link with a guy who plays for Inverness but I haven't seen him play so I can't really comment on that one in terms of whether I'd want to see it happen or not.
Then we of course move onto the 2nd Round Draw on I think Thursday. Then we're back at the Cottage for Brighton. So stay tuned for the Preview for the Brighton game and beyond. Thanks again for reading, and let's just be thankful we weren't one of the "upsets" tonight- because quickly looking through the results there were tonnes of them.
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