It's never easy with Fulham is it? As soon as I saw the team, I thought that the game was going to be a close one- and that's what it ended up being. It didn't need to be one, but through a combination of fatigue, complacency and general inexperience we found ourselves in a proper game with 10 Minutes to go tonight. But, I would've taken going through no matter how we did so as soon as the team came out- so obviously I'm happy with the outcome and the confidence it should give some of our youth players who were on show tonight.
We don't want these goal sections to be talking about 1 goal in a 1-0 win, we want this section to be filled with defensive mistakes and goals galore. The Adeniran goal was actually a really good one. After last season where we were lucky to clear the first man from corners, we've now scored from a corner in both games so far this season- so whatever we've been doing over Pre-Season has definitely worked in that respect. It was a really good delivery, and an equally good header from Adeniran to get his first goal for the club. I tweeted this at the time, two years after we said goodbye to John Arne Riise- we've finally seen a "Riise" Free-Kick go in. Woodrow won't hit a ball better than that one for the rest of his career. It was just an absolutely sublime finish. Then Woodrow showed off some of his other talents with the 3rd goal, with him showing determination to keep pressure on the Orient player, win the ball off him and put it in the bottom right corner. All three goals tonight were good in different ways, and up to around the 60 Minute mark we were looking really good.
Then, I don't know if we got complacent- or the young players who were pressing really well tired but we just completely dropped off and let Orient get back into the game. Even then, we weren't outplayed for either of the Orient goals. The first one was from our old friend the corner, and the second was McCallum being smart and peeling off to the back post where he had the better of Kavanagh ten times out of ten. It was obviously concerning at the time, and it does highlight to me the need to sign a Centre-Back who's a bit taller- but still fits in Slavisa's system in-terms of being mobile and good on the ball. However, none of the back four that started tonight will do so up at Deepdale so it's not concerning enough to start worrying about it yet.
I thought Jesse Joronen had a pretty good game tonight, even with conceding two goals. He couldn't really do much for either goal, and on the whole I thought he was good when called upon- and with one exception he looked good coming out for crosses and generally making himself "big" in the box which was my main criticism of Lonergan last season.
As I've already said, none of the back four tonight will be starting at Deepdale- but for the first 60 Minutes they looked reasonably good up against the limited pressure Orient put on. Kavanagh was ridiculously out of position at Right-Back, but he coped reasonably well I thought. He obviously got caught out for Orient's second goal, but it's more the fault of Stearman for allowing him to peel off and create the mismatch rather than Kavanagh's lack of height that was the problem for said goal. Ryan Sessegnon looks like quite a player it has to be said. You can definitely tell why Arsenal among others are supposedly after him. He made the odd mistake tonight, but he's 16 and he didn't look at all out of place up against an Orient team you'd expect to try and "bully" our generally small team.
If there was one negative to draw from tonight, it was Tim Ream's performance. Orient barely offered anything until they scored. But even with the general lack of anything directly in-front of him, Ream tried his best at times to mess things up for us. There was one moment in the first half where Ream just kicked the air and let the Orient winger get a run on goal, and he just generally looked quite unsure of himself tonight. How did Kit possibly think the Stearman/Ream partnership was good enough to push for Play-Offs last season? I know I've said about Stearman's role in Orient's second goal, but I do think Stearman was alright on the whole. Without trying to disrespect Orient, we were playing Leyton Orient. The fact these two looked as uncertain as they did at times doesn't bode well for a hypothetical scenario where either Madl or Kalas get injured.
It's a shame Denis Adeniran went off really, because he was having a great game up until he went down seemingly with cramp. He obviously got his goal, but he was another like Sessegnon who didn't look at all out of place in the team. I was worried about him when he got his yellow for celebrating in the crowd, but he was smart with how he played and displayed composure way beyond his years with how he played the game on the whole. Someone who was playing to his years of experience was Scott Parker tonight. It was a typical Parker performance in all aspects really. It was remarkably unremarkable, but he was there in the Midfield as a calming influence and he did well in keeping possession and generally keeping our Midfield together- especially as Orient got back into it.
Tayo Edun was another debut tonight, and I thought he looked really good for about 70 or so minutes. His drop off toward the end of the game was actually a contributing factor to Orient's resurgence, just because he wasn't pressing as much as he was at the start of the game. I can only assume his legs started to feel it as the game progressed, which is understandable considering this was his first game at senior level. In the 1st Half, Christensen was the best player on the pitch- and it wasn't even close. He was basically getting free reign down the Right-Hand side and he was playing with the confidence and ability of the Christensen we saw when Kit first came in. Second-Half he just completely disappeared. I'm not even quite sure why, all I know is that he did.
Luca De La Torre was another debut tonight, and similar to Aluko and Ayité on Friday- while he didn't contribute to any goals- he put in a really good shift tonight trying to press from the front. He was another one that dropped off a bit in the later stages, but again it's understandable and at the end of the day it didn't effect the end result. It just made it a bit closer than it had to be. Had we gone to Extra-Time chances are we'd have been completely screwed, but we managed to scrape through.
Cauley Woodrow put in a good case for why he should be starting up at Deepdale with his goals and general performance tonight. Especially considering some of the issues Preston have defensively at the moment, starting Woodrow who's more mobile and able to stretch the defence a bit more than Smith would be my preferred option. With that said, if we sign a Striker before Saturday all of that's moot- so we'll see what happens as the week goes on. I've already had my say on Woodrow's goals, but in general he performed well- and on another day he may have been able to get a Hat-Trick if he'd been able to hit one of his other shots a bit better.
The Tunnicliffe for Adeniran sub was obviously necessary, and I thought Tunnicliffe did alright when he came on. He's another player who, because of his role- it's almost better for him to have an unremarkable game than something happen associated with him. Because chances are if his name comes up, it's not good news for us. The exception being Bristol City last season of course. The Tom Cairney sub was entirely just to bring on a calming influence for the last few minutes of the game, and it obviously worked because we got through it. I'm sure Slavisa wouldn't have wanted to bring him on, and when he went down briefly he was probably thinking many four letter words- but there was seemingly no harm done.
If I had to have one criticism of Slavisa tonight, it was that he only used two subs when it was quite clear- at least to me that we had a few players completely dead on their feet still on the pitch. I understand why he may have been wary of bringing on our First-Teamers, but would it have killed us to bring Ayité on for Edun for the last 10 Minutes? We may have been able to get a fourth and kill the game if we had done so.
As I've already said, at the end of the day we're through and in the Draw for tomorrow. With Cup Football that's all that really matters. We shouldn't have let Orient back in the game, but we still managed to get through- so long-term there was no harm done. The Draw for tomorrow will be an interesting one, and the selection for said game will be interesting as well. The selection we had tonight was exactly what I want us to do in the Carling Cup. Play our young players, if we get through great- and if we don't it's a learning experience for said young players.
Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to review the next round, unless we get moved to Thursday for TV. So I'm hoping we don't get a "good" draw tomorrow. Thanks for reading as always, the Reviews will be back on Saturday where hopefully we can keep our unbeaten run going. We're off to Wembley, folks. Might as well get your tickets now.
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