Most liked posts in thread: Accrington (H) 1st January 2019

Comfortable victory today without getting out of 3rd gear.

Some very good performances at the back again, notably NKP, who is surely the most improved player since the turn of December.
Whilst perhaps not quite as good as his recent very high standards, Payne was still very good
My MOTM today though would be Doyle. One of his best performances since he signed for us

We certainly look far removed from a side currently battling to beat the drop, and its good to see we are now in touching distance of lower mid table. Still a lot of hard work ahead of us to keep the momentum of this excellent run of form we have hit.

The players can now take a much needed, and well earned rest, ahead of a difficult next game at Oakwell.

Well done to Hopkin, McElhone, Drury and the players for the astonishing turnaround since Herr Rahic left us alone

 

Do we have to go through this anytime anyone dares pick out a comment that someone construes as negative. For what its worth it was a great result but in my opinion it was our weakest performance in our good run of form. I thought Accrington started well the first twenty minutes but we well marshalled by ourdefence, especially NKP and Caddis who i thought were excellent today. I don’t want us to go into the Barnsley game without O’Brien and Akpan/Jim O’Brien, they are intergral to what we do well.
This isn’t a criticism of the likes of Wood or O’Connor but they are not midfielders. They did a job but Barnsley will take advantage if we don’t get our midfielders back.

 

Which sponsors thought it was a good idea to give Payne MOM? FFS lets at least try to keep him under the radar.

 

Zanzala isn't one I would want at City. He brought his sending off on himself. His ridiculous play acting - pretending he had a head injury, when he didn't, and when getting up forgetting it was supposed to be a head injury and starting to limp, quite rightly resulted in derision from the crowd. He then let that get under his skin, resulting as others including his manager have said, in the sending off. Prior to that he didn't seem to be causing too many problems for NKP or McGowan, and has scored 4 goals this season. I don't think he is good enough for City on either the talent or the temperament front.

 

Great result and the players now got a well earned rest. Hopefully they can get in some sun or something and come back refreshed for a weeks preparation for the Barnsley game.

Cannot believe how far we have come in 4-6 weeks. We look confident, much fitter and play good football.

Another clean sheet from a defence I thought couldn’t keep one ever again. Kudos to all. They’ve turned around our goal difference too.

The Barnsley game for me is a free hit, I know many won’t like me to say that but much like the Sunderland game. Go for it, see what we get, if we lose, we lose. Don’t let it effect confidence and then we have some very winnable games after coming up to string another run of games together

 

If Hopkin is backed financially. With some proper ambition, he’ll not only keep us up - he’ll take us up next season.

 

It’s my money so I’ll do as I please

 

Oooooops !!

So let's enter 2019 on a high ..................

 

I think this mini-break has come at the right time with a few niggles and a very stretched squad. Give the lads chance to breathe a bit.

 

The turnaround in this team over the last month is incredible. We’ve turned into a side that looks title winning in terms of quality.

 

Was that the one where Ripley pulled off a worldie? Unbelievable save.

 

I was surprised at how quickly Accrington lost their cool. Seemed to me that they were taking their frustrations out on the referee for losing individual battles and not adapting. The ref was a bit picky but surely you'd learn not to giveaway needless fouls. The number 3 was especially being frustrated by Miller and kept taking that out on the linesman with some frankly odd behaviour. The red card was another clear example of frustrations from the No.9 losing out constantly to NKP who was much improved.

Hopkin has done a superb job to get this team fighting and playing. He'll appreciate more than anyone the job on to try and cut down the squad and move away from the reliance on loan players. But the early signs are that we have a manager that could put a fantastic team together given the chance.

 

Job done, another great win. Not at our best compared to recent weeks, but some cracking goals.

 

I think it is a case of Hopkin forgetting we've got the likes of Reeves and Jones on our books!

 

We missed him badly today when he went off. We also missed the likes of Akpan/O’Brien, at times today they went through our midfield today too easily even when down to 10. Shows how important Jim O’Brien and an improved Akpan are to our midfield. Hopefully all three will be fit for the Barnsley game, we need our best team out against that lot.