Quote:
Originally Posted by football19
Main differences were they had a 6-5 centre forward,who was good in the air,we had a centre forward who never won a challenge or header !
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It was noticeable how difficult Gray found it to make any impact on the game. But since its well known how physically imposing Northampton are, you have to question why we play such a slight lad up front by himself, he was on a hiding to nothing. Might as well have started with Carver, at least he has a bit more muscle to him. That said (and this is an observation made from very limited evidence) Jeffers showed Gray how to do it when he came on, some very sharp runs that started to pull their back line around, a pity that no-one could put him through. If Jeffers does start to play regularly, we have to maximise his strengths, no good just pumping high balls up to him.
As for their goals, the first was just blasted in with embarassing ease, and then Rachubka makes a poor clearance, but was definitely barged off the ball, other refs would have given that in an instant. It's true that we did start to come into it in the second half, but this in part was down to them dropping deeper and defending what they had. Only late in the game did our full-backs get into a position to cross the ball. We barely won a header in their box all afternoon, hardly surprising given they were all half a foot taller.
The pitch was very poor, but that only partly excuses our inability to keep possession. I noticed that we did try to improvise later in the second half by going through the centre a bit more, but this worthy strategy was undermined by poor passing. Gray got a sniff once but was hustled off the ball, and Moly at least got a shot away towards the end that Nicholls (who commanded his box superbly) got a fingertip on.
There was no denying the workrate, but it seems to me that we are letting ourselves down with the basics. On the upside, in Wilson, Deano and Aldred we have the makings of a decent defensive line, and Linganzi does look like a talent if we can again harness the strengths that he brings to the team. It did look also as if Carver was unlucky not to be awarded a goal, if it wasn't over the line it was extremely marginal.
Have a good evening everyone
Phil