v Salford (H) Match Day Thread

[Gringo]

22 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

If Rooney is trying to make a statement with this team selection then can he stop please as everyone's gets it and it's not serving any purpose other than totally demoralising our younger players. 

I believe that our younger players far from being demoralised have been lifted, motivated and enthused by the experience of playing the major part in beating all of the arm chair critics, doom merchants on twatter, media experts, and bookmakers , by coming back from losing 3 times during the match to win against a very physical bunch of cheating aoles and showing a will to win, their superior skill, and a determination to prove their manager was correct in showing his faith in playing them.

I think you owe Rooney an apology.

 

[Bianoic]

I was away last night and committed to something else so couldn't  follow the match on the telly or radio. 
Was getting some updates from my son on whatsapp but to be honest feared the worst after 20 minutes, so gave it a rest.

Simply could not believe the euphoric messages that I picked up two hours later whilst taking a furtive, hopeful glance at the phone !!

What a tremendous result and achievement by all those in the team ! They so made my day and gave me great optimism for our future. Despite all the issues internally, clearly something is going right somewhere for that to happen. And its so marvellous to see the young ones really stepping up - its fantastic to see 

[Phoenix]

I think I'm right in believing that the guy who had his penalty saved was the one who dived for the earlier penalty.

Karma

[Gone]

3 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I think I'm right in believing that the guy who had his penalty saved was the one who dived for the earlier penalty.

Karma

No it wasn’t Karma mate it was Burgess 

[Phoenix]

4 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

No it wasn’t Karma mate it was Burgess 

The ref should have told him to change his shirt.

[QuitYourJibbaJivin]

6 hours ago, Leeds Ram said:

From what I saw last night he was good but thought he was close to anonymous against Huddersfield really. 

Played on the left of the front 3 on Saturday where as last night played central, where he was able to get on the ball more. He played 4/5 defence splitting passes last night. I think he’d be best suited in a 3 man midfield or a number 10, he’s wasted when he plays wide.

[DavesaRam]

I think the nightmare start was because one team had clearly played together while the other one had not. Simples.    Ish! It left some with the mindset that we are awful and will really struggle this season. Well we will struggle, no doubt about that. But apart from the two mistakes we didn't perform badly. YEs Salford might have scored one or two more, but then we could have done the same! 

 

[Woodley Ram]

55 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I think I'm right in believing that the guy who had his penalty saved was the one who dived for the earlier penalty.

Karma

that was funny, it happened outside the penalty area and the ref was miles away. Mind you after look at ours on a reply it was soft but at least in the penalty area 

[RoyMac5]

6 minutes ago, Woodley Ram said:

that was funny, it happened outside the penalty area and the ref was miles away. Mind you after look at ours on a reply it was soft but at least in the penalty area 

The linesperson wasn't miles away.

[Igor Igor Whats the Score?]

1 hour ago, Phoenix said:

I think I'm right in believing that the guy who had his penalty saved was the one who dived for the earlier penalty.

Karma

Correct. I celebrated exactly that when he missed ?

[DavesaRam]

I think the nightmare start was because one team had clearly played together while the other one had not. Simples.    Ish! It left some with the mindset that we are awful and will really struggle this season. Well we will struggle, no doubt about that. But apart from the two mistakes we didn't perform badly. YEs Salford might have scored one or two more, but then we could have done the same! 

THE LADS DONE GOOD!

There seems to be two groups of people forming right now - those who have got it in for Joswiack, and those who are starting to have it in for Sibley. Joswiack got a load of flack on Saturday becaue his gaff in front of goal was what he was guilty of last season, so people are rightly annoyed that he doesn't appear to be learning from his mistakes, or to be developing. Last night his strengths of his defensive work and his play in midfield were there again, but last night he was looking to lay the ball off better on several occasions, so that is definite progress. Keep it up Kamil!

And Sibley - apart from his red mist tendency, many say that he is weak defensively. Yet for the first 20 minutes he was the one putting the challenges in. And later on, after our formation tweaks he found loads of pockets of space, and laid some terrific through balls on, parrticularly short ones through the defence. He was in line for man of the match until Ebosele's boots lit up.

There was another difference last night, especially for the opening stages. When Salford got the ball in defence they immediately shouted "Forwards", and off they went, transitioning through the phases really well. When we got the ball, we went all Chuckle Brothers, embarking on a series of about 20 passes sideways. "It's Cocu ball, Jim, but not as we know it" is apt, because it was just as turgid in terms of progress, but at least it was quicker than Cocu's offering. A second problem, which was highlighted earlier, was that while we were struggling to find a forward pass, Ebosele wa standing out on the wing totally unmarked, and with acres of space in front of him. Our response to this gift of an out ball was to turn and pass sideways to someone who was already marked, and it happened time and time and time and time again.

It wasn't helped by Louie Watson - he of the massive accolades. It seems he had been told how DMs play. Because of his desire for the forwards pass we all expected a George Thorne, but what we got was another Max Bird, maybe hinting that Max has been told to play like he does as well. The poor kids.

When Ravel Morrison went deeper it seemed to free our lad up, and suddenly the real Louie Watson started to play. Hence the accolades. And he never shirked or hid from the ball, instead standing with his arms aout wide saying "Pas it to me". Good lad!

The kids did really well - Hutchinson looks a potential star, Stretton looks like he knows what a striker should do, and if he had been given the ball in the right places, he almost certainly would have done well. As it happens he nearly scored from the only through ball he got to run on to. Well done, Mr Stretton! Williams looked good, and never gave up, despite Salford's seedier side being on display. How the defender wasn't booked I have no idea, apart from him not being a Derby player. Compare this with Ebosele's booking. Good grief. Sky described the foul on Williams as "It wasn't obstruction, it was the player simply getting in the way a bit". They forgot to mention that it was deliberate, with the intention of stopping Williams getting on the ball. Ie obstruction! The Sky pundits were at it again, blathering on about our penalty not being one, with the topic occupying them right up until Salford's non-penalty. They tried to show that there was no contact on Ebosele. The truth is that Ebosele's leg was moved by the contact, but the original camera view, from behind, shows the defender flicking his leg in between Ebosele's legs. It was deliberate, aimed at either putting him off balance, or even tripping him without it looking like a trip. Maybe if Salford concentrated on the football instead of the dark arts, maybe they wouldn't still be in League Two. 

What last night tells us is that although we might struggle his season, simply because of lack of squad depth, there is a terrific togetherness and never say die attitude amongst the players, and there are plenty of good signs for the future.

So, raise your glasses, everybody. Here's to a great future!

[Rev]

@ollycutts1982,crack on and get the P'Boro thread started.

[Woodley Ram]

11 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

The linesperson wasn't miles away.

it was given by the ref

[RoyMac5]

17 minutes ago, Woodley Ram said:

it was given by the ref

Nothing to stop them communicating with the ref, was the point.

[SFox1993]

12 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

The linesperson wasn't miles away.

He was behind the play though , certainly not level.

[RoyMac5]

18 minutes ago, SFox1993 said:

He was behind the play though , certainly not level.

He's nearer than the ref and more 'in line' with the action. 

[sage]

The trouble the linesman had was Forsyth's tug was on the other side of the forward. The kind of understandable error that VAR sorts out.   I would point out that I was less understanding at the time. 

[duncanjwitham]

13 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

I think the nightmare start was because one team had clearly played together while the other one had not. 

It was more to do with the young players getting out-muscled IMO.  We got completely overrun early on.  We made the switch with Morrison dropping deeper, rather than Watson and Hutchinson sitting, after 20 minutes or so and had much more control. We were able to move the ball about a bit quicker and play to our strengths rather than theirs.

[Woodley Ram]

44 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Nothing to stop them communicating with the ref, was the point.

the lines people seem to wait all night for the Ref to make a decision and then put their flags up

[Ravabeerbelly]

I’m not sure players were necessarily getting out muscled. Of course there are always times when you lose a physical battle - that happens to any player at anytime. But they did target our left hand side and Watson and Williams struggled to get to grips with it initially. There was more than one occasion where Williams tried to come towards a ball that Forsyth was already challenging for and the loose ball then finds it’s way to to the spare player. It’s a simple rule of one challenges and one covers and once we’d been caught Williams learned pretty quick just to drop off and anticipate us losing the first challenge.

Hutchinson was caught trying to come out with the ball which resulted in a long range effort, I felt it was a foul tbh, but that’s not because he was young, he was just caught by someone reading the play. Ravel Morrison was asking bundled off the ball in midfield for the second goal and no ones raised an eyebrow!

Salford are a big physical combative unit and it highlights once again my point that league 2 is a very very difficult league to play in especially if you’re a technical player.

The switch for Morrison to drop deeper worked but only because a) the game had settled down and slowed a little (because he didn’t do anything there that Hutchinson and Watson weren’t already doing he just had a bit more space to do it….and b) Hutchinson is better suited to playing higher up and created more options and more space by doing so. He also offers an option to stretch the game so we had him and Sibley doing so and in turn getting closer to Stretton - this was highlighted perfectly for the first goal.