Feel sorry for anyone who watched Ipswich Hull on TV. They came to frustrate wasting time on goal kicks from the first minute, Town couldn’t break them down and kept losing possession in midfield. Early subs and a fantastic strike from our defensive midfielder changed the game.
Have to say impressed by McBurnie who came on for the second half - bit of a rep as a thug but he was a constant threat holding the ball up, bringing others into play and a general nightmare for centre backs to play against.
Odd team Hull. Doing okay until they met us and then the win at their place set them on fire results wise enough to ease them into a play off place before something of a reversion to the norm. Np prizes for guessing that their home win against us was McBurnies return from injury and he basically won the gsme single handed.
They’re a good example I think of the big issue in the Championship, which is clubs with decent teams but not enough money for a squad.
Wrexham fans have issues with McBurnie since our first FA Cup game against them but I have no such issues. He’s not a PL player but at this level there’s few better and I’d have him in our team in the snap of a finger.
Good result for Ipswich and did us a favour as once Chelsea is out of the way our next game is…
I can breathe out again. now. After the latest Ticketmaster screw up I do now finally have 2 tickets for Chelsea on Saturday night. Sadly our players are dropping like flies so the debate has turned from the strength of their team to the strength of ours.
Start the clock from December not November and no-one has accrued more points than Wrexham, which shows how rabid, these things are. I clearly have to backtrack though and concede that, having had a dip after he was permanently appointed, he’s done a cracking job and Saints absolutely have to be in with a real shot at this. The gap at this point is really meaningless given that everyone will be picking up or dropping points against rivals.
Defensive suicide from Luton today. We gifted Reading all 3 goals, going behind after 5 minutes but levelling at the end of the first half. Went ahead with a great headed goal and played some great football the likes of which I haven’t seen for some time. Any budding defenders should watch the last 10 minutes of the game where we then proceeded to give all three points to an outplayed Reading side by losing the ball in key defensive areas (the third goal was particularly bad). I was initially grateful that Jack Marriott was not playing for Reading only for his replacement to grab a hat trick. It was a real shame because at 2-1 up, playing some great football the crowd was right behind the team only for folks to head out the door after the killer third goal and for the boos to start again at the end of the game. Oh well, at least we made it to Wembley …..
We can’t tell our friend that we got further than him in the cup but we can legitimately say we did last longer than Wrexham.
I am hoping Leeds are concentrating on preserving their Premiership status & field a weakened team against us. As our league status now seems pretty safe I hope Clement fields the strongest line up available to him. Then I feel we may have a chance. If DF fields a strong side I think we are likely to join Wrexham as unlucky losers.
There was a large piece in the Mail on Saturday today about the effect Clement has had at Carrow Road. I believe it is posted in the Mail Online. It’s worth a read.
Hope you all spotted my part of the Macron stand messing with the Joey Jones tifo pre kick off. About 12 of us swapped our red and white cards with each other simply because it amused us and we could. We all obeyed the warnings to not sing “Chelsea r@&t boys” or face the forfeit of a 3 year ban. A certain portion of our section may have amused ourselves by singing
“Purveyors of sexual gratification in exchange for remuneration, you know what you are.”
Highly amused that we were also singing “F@%k VAR” right up until it awarded our opening goal.
I’d say Chelsea made 9 changes and Rosenoir was expecting several people to clock up minutes and others to put on a show. What he actually got was a team arrogantly playing within itself until it was forced to play and it was interesting to see that by the middle of the second half the normally implacable Liam was giving Parky what for and then absolutely ranting at the likes of Delap.
Given that we were without Kabore and Cacace on the wings and Sheaf and James in midfield this was always going to be a bigger ask than a lot of people thought but, once again, an absolute tactical masterclass from Parky. I see elsewhere we get zero credit for not allowing Chelsea to play through our lines despite that being a thing we’ve absolutely mastered. They didn’t play sideways and backwards because it’s exclusively their style. They did so because we made them. We timed our high presses well and our shape out of possession was just a joy to watch. We then hit long balls through the inside middle repeatedly and their back 3 really struggled. Thought we were magnificent bar the, as usual, careless O’Brien and the utterly useless Moore when he came on.
Thought Smith was terrific up top but bewildered to see the BBC give him MOTM. That was plainly between Dobson and Doyle. When Doyle lost his place at half time to Brunt away at Norwich after being murdered for 45 minutes it was hard to see a way back for him. Then he got lucky and Brunt got injured only returning tonight as a sub and of course having his goal disallowed. I have to say that even when out-paced, as he often is, he has been getting better and better and this year it’s been top class performances every game. Thought he was magnificent tonight but had no idea he’d got MOTM until I read @JohnF post.
Feel sorry for Dobbo. Was clearly in MOTM territory until the red. I’ve no issues with any of the VAR decisions but totally get why my Leeds supporting friend Al says he’s happy to go down just to escape VAR. Ref was wrong to give Dobbo a yellow though. The tackle was essential but also led by his knee. He’s now suspended for 3 matches when he may not have played tonight after having a screw put in his wrist midweek and playing with red strapping tonight.
Gutted for Brunty and the disallowed goal. Technically correct but offside was introduced originally to stop players hanging around the opposition area when the majority of play was in midfield. It was never intended to be used when the play was in the area anyway.
So, an eventful and really enjoyable night but the worst of all worlds really. With 2 critical games in 4 days coming up we’re now 4 midfielders and 2 wing backs down and played 120 minutes when that was the last thing we needed. The only positive was that most Championship results today fell our way.
That was a proper cup game. I think tired legs against skilled players did for us in the end. The VAR decisions were correct IMO, but having to sit through them was terrible. If only Dobbo had been subbed before he had chance to make that tackle it may have turned out differently.
If he hadn’t made the tackle, Chelsea may have scored anyway. The unpredictability of football is what makes it so good to watch.
Back to VAR though: I think the ref makes a different decision on the yellow card if he knows that he doesn’t have a back up. I also think the offside goal would have been flagged as such.
the handball was very much “ball to hand” as they used to call it. I have seen them given though.
That’s why I said he’d no choice. I have already seen some criticism of Parky for not subbing him earlier but, based on the way the game went, there’s no guarantee an attempt to sub would have been heeded immediately anyway. Great picture of the tackle in the Guardian which shows Dobbo led with his knee so no complaints here about it being red. VAR did its job correctly but nowhere near quick enough.
Insufficient credit for Dobbo I think in taking the red without complaint, without query and despite several Chelsea players trying to provoke an incident. Modern players seem incapable of acting like men and taking the decision on the chin. I normally find it quite cynical and depressing when home fans cheer off someone who’s had a red but there was no provocation in the applause he got when he walked. It felt genuinely heartfelt from all of us.
Having thought him a player in L1 with 45 minutes of good passes or 45 minutes of good tackles but never both I think him and Doyle have been an absolute revelation this season. The bloke has the oddest gait I’ve ever seen from a professional footballer and the pony tail and almost effeminate voice really don’t help but he’s been one of the huge success stories this season. Both he and we suspected his start at Southampton on the opening day would be one of his few appearances. That essentially he was a placeholder until other purchases were fit. He’s proved us wrong repeatedly in a masterful display of getting your head down and working hard on self improvement to the point where I find myself with minor irritation every time Parky puts him on the bench.
Thoroughly entertaining game for the neutrals. I thought Wrexham acquitted themselves very well. The Red card was correct, and I thought it red when seeing the tackle live and was surprised the ref elected for yellow until the VAR intervention. Speaking of VAR, I’m still glad it doesn’t exist in the EFL. That ‘equaliser’ ruled out by VAR was an extremely marginal offside. While technically correct I felt this was another example that was to the detriment of the game and the fans watching it. Yes, officials’ decisions will sometimes be wrong, and it hurts when those decisions go against your own team, but officials try to get it right but, like players, are fallible. For me VAR should be restricted to goal-line technology and serious foul-play for off-the-ball incidents. Maintaining the natural spontaneity of the game is worth the cost of the occasional ‘error’, and the elimination of the PL players regularly calling for VAR interventions would be another benefit.
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