A different draw from Saturday. Holloway said that he expected us to play 442 & set his team out to dominate CM & possession. As usual, 442 doesnt work if the opposition play three in CM. For all the possession that Millwall had, they hardly threatened our goal in the first half. In fact, we were the better side until we scored. We had three good chances in the first half but unfortunately two fell to Nuhui & one to Lees. May looked 100% sharper last night. His runs were better & his movement excellent. Unfortunately, we had no-one to play the killer pass with Hutchinson & Semedo offering little. By contrast, Nuhuis movement was poor, his control disappointing and the link up play from Saturday was missing. Again, he showed no sharpness in front of goal. Maguire had a poor game but he is always worth his place on the pitch when he can score in an instant. Maghoma was threatening but lacked the shot or killer pass. Couldnt see what happened when he was clear & went over but he had a clear opportunity there. The back four looked generally solid with Lees looking composed & Palmer played two excellent cross field passes. Once we had scored our defence dropped deeper & deeper as Coke & Semedo offered little protection. The penalty clearly wasnt a penalty. In fact it was a foul on the keeper but hey, this is Nigel Miller (sixth game at S6, we have won one, drawn one & lost four. He has given three penalties against us & sent off two of our players) . Westwoods gamesmanship was enough to put off the taker & we survived. There were calls for a penalty when their keeper bundled May over. I didnt see this well but it looked a better shout than the one he gave them. It looked like we would hold on for what would be a great victory then Maguire gave the ball away carelessly, Helan got caught out of position, Coke stood still with his hands on his hips, The CBs retreated back towards the goal line, Semedo couldnt stay on his feet and they were presented with a shot from 15 yards out. Westwood - 6 - hardly a save to make Palmer - 8 - couple of sweet passes Lees - 7 - composure & won most headers Loovens - 6 - solid Mattock - 7 - calm Maguire - 6 - poor game but scored Hutchinson - 5 - never got control Semedo - 5 - always chasing Maghoma - 6 - good moments Nuhui - 5 - poor touch, no threat May - 7 - good runs, much promise ..................................................... Coke - 6 Madine - 6 Helan - 6 Holloway won the battle of tactics & SG didnt respond. We lost midfield from the start & were reliant on using the wings or hitting it long. This was two points thrown away by a stubborn manager & inflexible tactics. DJ Mark II. Having said that, if we had held out for another ten seconds, we would have won 1-0 & be joint top of the league. Winning matches, Promotion & Relegation is decided by such fine margins.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 10:58:42 +0000
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