Away vs Stevenage

Get in there ! All about momentum now keep it rolling . Not right interested if we play teams of the park or not . Stay in that top 3 and get out this khaki league at the first attempt will do nicely

 

Apologies. My mistake. I misread the City Twitter feed.

 

Well what a win that was, maybe not fully deserved on the balance of play but as the cliche goes, good teams still win when they're not playing well.

Going to stick my neck out here and say BRE is the signing of the summer for us. I love Vaughan but the impact Ben has had on our defence is astronomical. He's such a clean tackler of the ball and wins at least 90% of his aerial duals and also has made AOC look a new player. He's a huge fella who actually uses his size and frame to his advantage *cough* akpan *cough*.

Wood was top class, both attacking and defensively. O'Donnell again made two worldie saves and now he has a proper unit in front of him he's back to his best.

Sadly the midfield is still dire - no control of the game whatsoever. I thought palmer was ok tonight, showed his intelligence quite a few times and did the defensive side of the game but you can tell he's having to do more than one man's job in there. I don't rate devine and think he was anonymous tonight and akpan was clueless when he came on. Devitt and one more in there please.

Scannell was also disappointing. His work rate is good but he's not contributing enough giving forward for me, he still looks a player lacking confidence. Although having said that we haven't been feeding him the ball in dangerous attacking positions at all. Hopefully he'll come good when he has a central midfield who can supply the ball to him.

But overall a top result and 100% a game we would've lost last season which shows we're moving in the right direction.

 

Re: Scannell, this is why he was being "eased in" despite recovering from injury a while ago.

Don't think he ever reached full match fitness.

Hopefully when he does, he offers more.

 

Thought he did well the first 15 mins when we needed an outlet but after the injury he went missing never MOTM imo.

 

Gotta win those sort of games if you want to be up there in this slog of a season in this league. Keep the points ticking over.

No one who we expected really started like a train. As @Fools Gold said, keep in that top 3 as long as we can and we will be fine

 

Thought he did well the first 15 mins when we needed an outlet but after the injury he went missing never MOTM imo.

 

The Stevenage left back had the beating of Scannell for pace all game. Let's hope he was unusually quick or that Scannell sharpens up.

 

I think he took all of us by surprise.

 

Works his nuts off chases down everything , pretty much wins every head he challenges for , controls the ball with his feet really well and has already scored..

 

I agree. I'm note sure if Devine, Palmer and Akpan all like playing in the same 15m2 piece of the pitch or they are told to play there.

Palmer and Devine both look decent at times but they are bypassed with long passes or don't demand the ball. Of recent times Josh Cullen is one who stands out to me as someone who stood and literally shouted at people to pass him the ball. None of our three seem to want it.

Yes, he was quick but I'm not sure Scannell is all about pace he seems more technical and tricky than fast to me.

 

Those are the games that make the difference between being up there and being mid to lower end of the table. As others have said last season we get beaten and the players get booed off this season the fans are singing them off the pitch long may it continue.

I won't pretend we played well with the ball we didn't in fact we were well below what we can do but without it they worked their nuts off and deserve the plaudits. No one is going to roll over for us and for some of the stevenage players that will be like a cup final and I thought they acquitted themselves well. That reminded me of steel we used to show when Parky was here.

 

I thought he said it wasn't happening. Davitt?

 

Was going to sum up but I dont need to as you have already done it ! Watched on IFollow with Radio B-leeds summary which worked fine when you cant get to Stevenage on a Tuesday night. Definite League 2 "fair" on display there were balls lumped end to end. They had at least 70% possession and deserved something out of it. Circa .lots of set pieces, O'Donnells crucial save ! and hitting the bar late on.

Our midfield was poor; the ball was either coming back at our resolute defence or hit up to our forwards. Seemed like a massive chasm in the centre of the pitch? . Vaughan was again excellent occupying their defence. Scannell needed to get more on the ball ? But this may be him getting back up to speed.

A wins a win and we'll take it. But we cannot get away from the need to bolster our option in midfield. I hear a couple of names and a young forward on loan.

A sign of good team is when you dont play great but still win.

 

A well ground out 3 points.

But before we get too excited, we were lucky not to concede at least 1 goal. 2 great saves.

The back 2 look solid. So happy with that. Wood can play a dangerous ball, almost every time on tonight's performance, so seems wasted at left back. Not to be over critical, when played at lb seems too back off a bit too much. Mellor - for a 15 min period in the second half, almost all attacking threat came from their left wing - just needs to sort his priorities when going forward.

Palmer had a great first 20 mins. Always reading the game breaking up play, but that got less as the game went on.
The rest of midfield almost none existent once the change had been made and wood switched to lb.

Donaldson wasted after the change 2 up top please, him and Vaughn look to link up wellin the first half hour or so. No criticism of Donaldson , just played out of position.

Without sounding like a downer, tonight's result could have been different, but it wasnt, so enjoy it for now. But without at least 1 more wide option, we will get found out later in the season.

 

Stevenage poor? I thought they looked decent. Passed it around well, asked a lot of questions, but we battled at the back. They won’t be down there for long if they play like that.

 

Will win you free kicks for fun when under pressure, Donaldson brings a lot more to the team that just a goal here and there. When i think of our strike force now to what it was last season.... on second thoughts its not worth thinking about.

 

A great summary, we know where we are weak, it stands out like a sore thumb. It then puts pressure on the parts of the team that are performing well. We get the quality required in midfield and the rest will benefit.

 

It's a shame that the change was forced upon us.

Until that point, we defended fairly well looked well balanced, even with palmer and Devine in the middle.

It's when we put donaldson out wide, the balance had gone. He plays and fights at the top of the pitch, wasted out wide.

 

O’Donnell - 9 - two unbelievable saves, punched well when needed to, also collected crosses well when under pressure
Mellor - 6 - average steady away performance. Didn’t do anything particularly well, but chipped away
BRE - 9 - machine. Absolute animal at the back, wins everything
AOC - 8 - good centre half, benefits playing alongside the machine. Reads the game well
Wood - 7 - very good crosses. They targeted his side most of the second half, but dealt with a lot of pressure
Devine - 6 - neat and tidy but not nasty or creative enough
Palmer - 6 - neat and tidy but not nasty or creative enough
Akpan - 5 - wouldn’t know he was playing. Struggle to see anything he offers apart from being good mates with scannell and BRE
Scannell - 6 - great work rate, still waiting for a bit more on the ball from him
Vaughan - 7 - some leader. Should have been sent off. Elbowed their Centre half twice in second half. What a guy
Don - 6 - great work rate, cut inside really well second half and should have scored but scuffed the shot

Average performance at best on the ball, but very determined off the ball. Didn’t really look like conceding apart from the header which OD pulled off a world class save for. Need another option in midfield. I’d also be tempted to keep wood left back and player a winger in front of him