Just Back (Merged) Hyde

Not pretty , very nervy but job done.

Shop was wrong choice for me. Didn't need a battering ram, we needed someone to run at them like Tonk did. He had them panicking as soon as he came on.

I really want the Shop to do well but he just aint got it.

Very flat performance and crowd today. Was like an end of season dead rubber.

Phew that was hard work, especially against a Hyde team full of young kids and a pudding sub. Typical of many home games this season. We struggled to find a way through a defence playing a high line looking for offsides. We did not have the nouse or ability to vary our game and play the ball in behind them or get midfielders running through them. We persist with close passing in wide areas and end up losing posession or playing the ball back. Very frustrating. Only Hannah looked likely to score and was unlucky a couple of times in the first half, especially chipping the keeper but hitting the post. I feared it was not to be our day when LJL skied an open goal chance. If only he would just side foot the ball home in those situations instead of trying to blast it in. Hannah to the rescue though and huge relief all round and we are still in a good position to secure a playoff place but anything can happen and we failed to improve our goal difference.

I wouldn't look too much in to it, we know we can up our game against harder opposition (I hope)

Chris is spot on about missing Disley's runs beyond the forwards. He would have got through a few times today against Hyde's very high line. I'd imagine Disley will be straight back in the team if Thanoj doesn't impose himself on games more than he did today. Just passed him by but I've gone into that on another thread.

Kerr was the orchestrator of all our play. I like him, although he does play a few blind, round the corner flicks too many sometimes.

Thought Hatton was good again and played some lovely balls in the 1st half.

Doig and Boyce weren't really tested. But I was surprised to see Doig jump ahead of the recent sub Mcdonald in the pecking order to play. Both did alright in setting us off building from the back.

I'm pleased we stuck to trying to play football today. Granted it was against opposition who let us play a bit, but we stuck to it. By the end of the 1st half we should've been 3-0 up. As others have said Hannah should've squared to LJL, and then should've scored when he lifted it over the onrushing keeper & onto the post.

Second half we seemed to be going a bit flat and not getting in behind them as often. I thought Neilson was below par. His touch let him down several times and he either tried to be too clever or tried to do it all on his own running through a crowded central area.

Hannah's goal was a great finish. Tounkara came on and was lively but he had no end product to anything he did, except that curler that was heading for the top bin until the keeper pulled off one of a McKeown-esque save to tip it wide.

The result was the important thing today but we didn't play that bad either. Just lacked a killer instinct in the 1st half. Pleasing to see Hurst changing it and mixing things up a bit by putting Paddy left back.

MOM: Kerr or Hatton

Doesn't really fill me with confidence but god knows with this team at the minute. First half was woeful, they got good support from the crowd for the first 30 minutes at least, and just were so slow, lethargic, losing possesion too many times, hyde had had 3 or 4 shots, 2 I think were on target within the first 15 minutes. I really don't think they parked the bus today, they didn't really do much at all, i'd say 80% of the times they gained posession, they were given it by one of our players. If we played a half like that against a good side we'd have been a few goals down I think. Second half was a slight improvement, but much better after the subs. I think we should mix up our free kicks a bit, seemed too obvious even for hyde today.

So yeh, should've done alot better, but got the important 3 points, they really need to step up their game for the playoffs, but you feel like the potential should be there based on what we did in the first half of the season and in the FA cup. I thought hannah and boyce were good, thanoj was quite poor, LJL did a couple of good things early on but seemed to quickly fade away when we needed more urgency.

Dunno, i'd be much more positive if i'd just seen one gutsy or exciting performance recently, its just not there, really hope theyre just secretly saving themselves for the playoffs or something.

Can't say much without repeating what's already been said.  Just thankful we got the points really.  I don't see that as our full strength team.  Some key players missing, for me.

MOM - difficult again, but having a striker score four goals in 2 games aint bad going for a team whose strikeforce doesn't score, so Ross Hannah gets it and well done to him.

Is Rodman ill or injured?  Hope his absence isn't due to anything serious.

Quoted from marinette

Can't say much without repeating what's already been said.  Just thankful we got the points really.  I don't see that as our full strength team.  Some key players missing, for me.

MOM - difficult again, but having a striker score four goals in 2 games aint bad going for a team whose strikeforce doesn't score, so Ross Hannah gets it and well done to him.

Is Rodman ill or injured?  Hope his absence isn't due to anything serious.

Chest infection.

Quoted from ginnywings

Chest infection.

Thanks ginny.  Not sure if I like the sound of that.  GWS rodders.

things took a change for the better after 3 good subs but still not sure we will get back up as Hurst is not good enough to take us there this season  or next