Hmmmm. Reading a mixture of opinions from earlier replies about the match. Some quite negative and some more positive. For me, I don’t try to read too much into why Coley’s selections are as they are!
I thought that our young team last night played really well on the whole against a much more experienced City team. If I have to express disappointment about the match then it is aimed at a very physical Bradford side who resorted much of the time to a ‘Route One’ approach including their centre forward and centre backs just throwing themselves into our players. I am sure our young defenders learnt a lot about the rougher tactics in wider use in the men’s game but I honestly thought they handled those rough tactics well. Ironically this barging headlong into our players resulted in two opponents finishing up with their heads bandaged up! Refereeing has to be looked at here too!
Very disappointed with these tactics employed by Mark Hughes! I would not want to watch them every week!
Yes, Stanley struggled for an hour with the lack of strength at centre forward but the good substitutions in the second half made a big difference to our attacking threat. Perfectly illustrated in our equalizing goal. Sub Leigh’s quick thinking in taking a short corner to Sub Nolan who curved a lovely left footed outswinger for Sub Josh Andrews to power in a superb header. The goal scored was right in front of me and my daughter and was ‘Simply Class!” I think Andrews could be our twenty goal replacement for Bishop that we have been looking for! Hoping he can stay clear of injury.
I like Brad Hills and Josh Andrews in particular and they certainly look like they could be the answers to some of our previous weaknesses.
Seb Quirk was my MOTM for an exemplary all round performance, starting at right back where he defended well and got into a lot of our passing moves going forward. Then he was equally effective at left back after the substitutions! A very under rated player!
I agree with comments about our younger home grown players doing really well too.
Penalties are just a lottery, I would prefer extra time.
I am feeling quite positive about our prospects moving forward from here.
KEEP THE FAITH POSITIVELY
ON STANLEY ON
