An excellent and much needed win against a side most expected to do well this year I thought there was a plan this evening to get the ball in between their midfield and defence. West Brom stopped this from happening for 25 mins hence we just kept the ball on the halfway line for long periods. I don't mind this too much rather than just aimless hoofing Things have definitely got better and it's now so irritating we didn't hold on at Reading and Burnley as we might have Sheff Utd in our sights now Bachmann - Made one really excellent save from the handball effort. Other than that he clearly annoys a lot of the other players during the game and the less said about the kicking the better. Only has to pass it 15 yards to The Hair but manages to muck that up! Gaspar - Fair to say he's improved a lot since the World Cup. Actually looks like a player that has played 400+ games in La Liga. Better the Ferreira in my opinion Morris - Looks so comfortable on the ball and tries to be positive. Pace is obviously an issue but last night he had a really good game Porteous - Signing of the season although that in fairness is a very low bar! Captain material and a terrific organiser Hoedt - Yes he made mistakes last night but I think we all knew he wasn't perfect. What I like though is he is not petrified of receiving the ball and looks to get us going forward Kone - I say somebody on here saying people are joing the hate bandwaggon for this chap. There are some seriously strange people if he is getting stick. There were a couple of occasions last night when he made the wrong choice but so did Louza when he should have put Sarr through. Kone is a decent player who is strong and looks after the ball but he's only 19 and hasn't played much top level football yet. The Hair - Superb at stopping the opposition but his failure to spot runs being made by the forward players is infuriating. Him and Louza next to each other would be ideal Ken Sema - Fabulous stuff. Not the greatest talent wise but he's very decent at this level and we are a better team with him in it. Deserved MOM Pedro - I think he's trying to hard. Relax, you're one of the best players in this division. A quiet game and needs to work on his temper Sarr - I am pretty certain there are people who made their mind up on what to say about Sarr before the game even started. I've seen him called lazy, rubbish, uninterested all based on this game!! He scored (again), he should had an assist, he hit the post and he ran himself ragged including sprinting 80 yards in the last few minutes to join the attack only for Louza to pass it elsewhere. He quote rightly gets criticism for certain performances but last night he played well Davis - I'm going against what many have said on here and thought he played well. Held the ball up, made a lot of good runs, maybe should have done better with his chance. His roll of the defender just before the first goal is his strength and I'm not sure we get the ball to him enough in the penalty box Subs - None really had a lot of time to make a difference but who on earth thought signing Britt was a good idea. We would have been better off with Bayo or give Araujo a run out. He looks massive Back in the play off spot. A good win with stuff to improve on but here has been some positive signs recently
Exactly - it made you kind of understand their initially cautious approach as clearly their defence is shaky as hell and needs loads of protection.
Strange game, but important and enjoyable result. Do not know what to make of Davis and Sarr. Davis is so desperate to score, but just does not have the skill, composure and/or confidence to do so. He also seems to have lost the ability to hold the ball and beat players. We had seen glimpses of this earlier in the season. We missed some straight forward chances, with Davis, Pedro and Sarr all squandering their opportunities. I have been critical of Sarr recently for his attitude, but I think that he may be going through some sort of a crisis of confidence or low mood. He seems afraid to take on his man. At times in the past, he would have done that without thinking. He seemed genuinely ecstatic having scored, so maybe that will give him the boost he needs. There is something not quite right with him. Bachmann's distribution remains a major worry and it was exposed badly for their 2nd. Hoedt made a couple of high profile errors, but looks ok. I thought Morris struggled in preventing crosses from their right wing and he lacks pace. I would love to see him make it, but I am not convinced. Sema, Porteous, Choudaray played well. Others were solid (Kone was good up to the point were he has to shoot or pass). Great feeling at the final whistle as I was sure we would drop 2 points towards the end, as per out last number of games. We need Louza to start.
Spot on Knight GT. I say Blackadder-style 'yes, yes and thrice yes!'. Sarr was a major part of last night once he decided that he needed to show the urgency required which was his (and Davis') problem in the first 25 mins last night.
I've seen some posts saying he is crap or sh*te and various other choice noun. I dont have the time nor inclination to scour the forum to find these. I even don't understand why people say he is raw (which at least is a constructive criticism) Martins is raw not Koné. Hey, that's my opinion for what it is worth.
I said he's raw as he hasn't fine tuned certain parts of his game. He's still rash at times (snatching at his...assist last night) and his decision making speaks to someone not fully confident in what he wants to do. But his ball winning ability and his willingness to get on the ball in a league like the Championship makes me very excited about what a player he is already, and how good he could become.
Defensively he's been brilliant, not sure about him going forward, but he's shown enough to suggest he has a future at the club
He definitely made the wrong choices at times, but I thought his ball winning and carrying were absolutely excellent last night. Has a lot of confidence in his dribbling in tight spaces which then made it all the more frustrating having started a promising position that he couldn’t see/make the forward pass that seemed obvious. But he wins the ball, makes himself available, creates space to progress the ball. If he can fine tune the pass selection and get a bit quicker at it - which everything about his career trajectory thus far suggests - then we’ve got a quality player on our hands. He’s only played 13 months of professional football. And already his ball winning has improved considerably since he joined us. Clearly a fast learner. There was a point last night where I was desperate for Louza to come on but didn’t want him to replace Kone - that’s how good he was.
Well I did a quick search of the forum for "Kone" with "crap" and couldn't find any comments using that adjective about him. You probably should do something to support your seeming straw-man assertion, and while you're at it brush up on your English grammar.
I have to say that while we keep Bachmann as keeper we will be offering the opponents a clear chance of scoring if they decide to pepper the box with crosses. I have not seen anyone that scared of crosses since Dracula! Awful keeper.
What is the actual rule here? Surely you can't lurk off the pitch and then come on after the ball is played? Otherwise you would keep a player lurking off the pitch by the opposing goal all the time? Or have I misunderstood?
You can be offside and the goal stands. (Re West Brom’s second goal). You are allowed to shoot with your elbow (re Thomas-Asante). Basically the opposition can do what they like without fear of judgement. The rules only apply to Watford players.
And how bad is Okoye if he can't even get a sniff of that no. 1 spot? A £5m goalie should be an upgrade you'd hope.
Maybe we need to start being 'streetwise' and start putting pressure on officials, I'll let you make your minds up on the relative merits of that, but I have to say it never occurred to me that their second goal might be offside until I saw the replay...the same can be said of Davis in the build-up to our first goal too!
Not an argument, merely an observation in which I have seen comments so clearly the search is ineffective and also you missed the accent on Koné. If you are going to attack me with my use of grammar, then you'll be a busy person picking up the grammar of people on an internet forum. Good luck with that.
In a word, terrible. Just have a word with the MK Dons' sharpshooters who didn't have much trouble outwitting him in the Carabao Cup. Yes, the Dons 22nd placed in League 1 and firing on all cylinders with 30 goals in 32 matches.
Frankly I'm amazed that neither IBB nor BigRossLittleRoss have missed a glaring open goal given the Dan's tributes to the fine mullet of the great Richard Sneekes. You both need to up your game! "Bad Sneekes and a Pina Colada my friend..." or even "Kick off your high-heel Sneekes it's party time".
I think you may have opened a new path of investigation... footballers of the past inspired by Dan lyrics. Back Jack Charlton, do it again. Wheels turning round and round.
