back from the game - norwich

[Plymouth_Royal]

O what a night...did anybody give us away fans a 10 because we sang our hearts out.

Inflatables not too bad , but not as good as Blackburn...loved the Palm tree and Sponge Bob in the front, contributed a Union Jack lilo that got lost amongst the crowd

Overall a great night out

P.S please play Kebe on the left on sunday with SHunt on the right it seemed to work this evening, also lets have Marek starting.

Glad you liked the palm tree, SpongeBob is becoming a regular thanks to AFers. Sadly the tree will not be returning because I couldn't be arsed to deflate it at half time so I could get it home.

I thought the first half was poor, we were sloppy and allowed Narch room to play, thankfully they looked about as likely to score as I did. Our attacks were a bit aimless and lacked precision, but we don't conceed much so that always gives us a chance.

Second half started much the same for me. I was just thinking Coppell should take off Cisse, who I thought had been ok at best to give us more attacking threat. We didn't seem to have much going through the middle.

We then spent the next 10 minutes under almost constant pressure once Marek came on and I was getting worried that we'd be over run. Good cross from Kebe (put in a couple of corkers this evening and came into his own once we went ahead.) and an excellent goal from Long attacking the ball. Something we seem to have been missing of late.

Once that went in it was only ever one team in it and we could have had a few more.

Hahnemann - 6 one good save, the rest fairly standard fair. slightly dodgy kicking, but usually under pressure.
Rosenior - 7 good game, nothing spectacular
Harding - 6.5 made a few mistakes here and there, didn't seem to offer masses going forward, but not too bad.
Duberry - 7 Didin't really give Norwich a sniff
Bikey - 7 Similar, but had me worried a few times with his slightly unconventional style and aggression
Little - 5.5 - not on long and didn't massively impress
Kebe - 7.5 - not as wasteful as I've seen him before and some good crosses. He has the talent, can he produce consistently?
Karacan - 6.5 didn't really notice him much, but I think that's more to do with my eyesight than anything else.
Cisse - 6 gave us a bit of bite in midfield, but didn't really offer anything going forward. Can't afford that with two in the middle
Kitson - 6.5 - didn't do a great deal, but some nice touches and linked up play well. a lot of teh crosses were put over his head to a shorter player for some reason.
Long - 8.5 worked his socks off, two well taken goals. I was very impressed having seen him earlier in the season. Not convinced he'll be much use if we go up, but a tidy player at this level.

SHunt 6.5 - Came into it much more once we scored and played somoe nice stuff, beating his man a few times. Set pieces still poor though
Matejovsky - 6.5 nice passes and shields the ball well, we did seem to get overrun for a while just after he came on.
Doyle - cameo so no mark.

Thought our passing got better and we looked up for it once we scored, but I feel the balls are still not weighted well enough a lot of the time. The side has a lot of potential, but it's still very far from firing on all cylinders. Really really pleased with the result. Roll on Brum!
Doyle

i hate to tell you this BUT, doyle didnt play!!!

pearce came on to man mark gow.

[RoyalBird]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

As I said, it wasn't his best games but far from awful, probably 6/10. Karacan was the better midfielder today and is much more like a Sidwell type player imho (something we've desperately needed since he left). One thing he is not is a DM and it definitely showed a lot when our defense was creaking and was nowhere near as organised without Cisse. That's why I would rather have him starting, because at least we have some stability in front of a defence that still shows signs of being a liability and, lets face it, we're a much harder team to beat with Cisse and Karacan playing instead of Matejovsky. Marek is a player who can come on and make that attacking impact in midfield when the opposition tires from attacks that don't produce any clear cut chances apart from speculative long shots.

[Ian Royal]

3 clean sheets in a row. The defence isn't a liability.

Cisse pros:- gives us a bit of protection in midfield, decent shot on him
Cisse cons:- doesn't offer much going forward and his passing isn't great so we struggle to keep the ball.


I'd just like to add a pretty good show from the Norwich fans, good turn out for a near relegated team and quite vocal and positive despite watching shit all season. Until we score anyway.

Several came up to me after the game and said they were rooting for us to get promotion and wanted us to beat Brum at the weekend.

Well, if any of them read this, I'd just like to say good luck bouncing back.

[RoyalBird]

We may have 3 clean sheets, but there were a fair few awkward moments, as soon as Marek came on, when our defence was closing down Norwich more and left quite a few gaping holes which Norwich exploited but couldn't finish. Then again, I think this was because of the attacking edge we had as soon as Marek came on, so it was inevitable the holes would have appeared when we were being very aggressive to get the ball back. I reckon any other team who had better finishers would have score from possible opportunties.

One final thought, was it me or was the Norwich goalie really dodgy? Out of position a few times (including Long's first goal), hesitant at other times, it was a good thing that the Norwich defenders threw themselves at the ball and tackled their hearts out.

[Arch]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

I'd agree with Bird here. Thought he was fine without being spectacular. Covers a surprising amount of ground, but clearly people are divided about what they saw. I personally wouldn't replace Cisse wit Matejovsky, who I thought had precious little impact on the game (aprt from the trivial fact that we scored twice after he came on ). Back to Tabb for next week?

[AlexY25]

USA - 7 - Didnt have much to do.

Rosenior - 6 - Was okay.
Doobs - 8 - Solid.
Bikey - 8 - Solid.
Harding - 7 - Did the job.

Little - 6 - Did fine while he was on.
Karacan - 7 - Lively, good passing.
Cisse - 6 - Good cover. We look a bit better defensively with him there.
Kebe - 9 - Great assists. Good running. Worked hard. Left and right foot. Pleased for him.

Long - 9 - 2 good finishes. MOTM.
Kitson - 6 - Was fine.

Subs
Pearce - 5 - Didnt have to do anything
Marek - 6 - Come on and we created 1 or 2 chances. His passing ripped there defence up at the end.
S.Hunt - 7 - Thought he played well. Good deliveries.

[SLAMMED]

What a night! Concidering there were only about 500 of us, we made a hell of a noise. And LOL @ the Ipswich fans in our end. Legends.

Heres some of my best pictures:

[RoyalBird]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

I'd agree with Bird here. Thought he was fine without being spectacular. Covers a surprising amount of ground, but clearly people are divided about what they saw. I personally wouldn't replace Cisse wit Matejovsky, who I thought had precious little impact on the game (aprt from the trivial fact that we scored twice after he came on ). Back to Tabb for next week?

See that's the thing. From what I've seen of Tabb in centre midfield, he looks a really good player, probably a bit more attacking than defending though. The problem is Cisse has shown, at least this year anyway, how important he is as a starter because we were so much more organised defensively when he was on, which meant Norwich couldn't do anything but have long speculative shots. Karacan has also shown that he deserves his place in the first team for the time being anyway as well, as he hasn't let the team down at all and can play the CM role Sidwell had that we have sorely missed. However, Tabb can probably do the same as well when given the chance, just maybe a bit more attacking. It's a tough call to decide between the three, unless we sacrifice a striker up front or play 4-3-3 (the FM version of course )

[Ian Royal]

What a night! Concidering there were only about 500 of us, we made a hell of a noise. And LOL @ the Ipswich fans in our end. Legends.

Heres some of my best pictures:

That is a truely awful picture of me. But at least I've finally made it on to Hobnob.

Sorry I missed you lot.

[SLAMMED]

Is that you! I wish i'd known.

[Plymouth_Royal]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

As I said, it wasn't his best games but far from awful, probably 6/10. Karacan was the better midfielder today and is much more like a Sidwell type player imho (something we've desperately needed since he left). One thing he is not is a DM and it definitely showed a lot when our defense was creaking and was nowhere near as organised without Cisse. That's why I would rather have him starting, because at least we have some stability in front of a defence that still shows signs of being a liability and, lets face it, we're a much harder team to beat with Cisse and Karacan playing instead of Matejovsky. Marek is a player who can come on and make that attacking impact in midfield when the opposition tires from attacks that don't produce any clear cut chances apart from speculative long shots.

i disgree. norwich changed there shape at 1 nil down and moved alan gow in more central role floating in between the strikers and midfield. thats why they looked a more potent attacking threat through the centre. its also why we brought on pearce to man mark the guy towards the end. even if cisse was still playing i firmly believe we have leaked more attacks.

[RoyalBird]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

As I said, it wasn't his best games but far from awful, probably 6/10. Karacan was the better midfielder today and is much more like a Sidwell type player imho (something we've desperately needed since he left). One thing he is not is a DM and it definitely showed a lot when our defense was creaking and was nowhere near as organised without Cisse. That's why I would rather have him starting, because at least we have some stability in front of a defence that still shows signs of being a liability and, lets face it, we're a much harder team to beat with Cisse and Karacan playing instead of Matejovsky. Marek is a player who can come on and make that attacking impact in midfield when the opposition tires from attacks that don't produce any clear cut chances apart from speculative long shots.

i disgree. norwich changed there shape at 1 nil down and moved alan gow in more central role floating in between the strikers and midfield. thats why they looked a more potent attacking threat through the centre. its also why we brought on pearce to man mark the guy towards the end. even if cisse was still playing i firmly believe we have leaked more attacks.

We'll never know how Cisse would have dealt with Gow floating in that position, but the way Cisse was playing, mainly floating just in front of the the Centre backs, would have made him the perfect candidate to have dealt with him. The fact he was subbed off earlier meant that Pearce had to come on to have someone play in that position. But didn't it occur to you that there were so many gaps in the Reading defence, and most were playing out of position as soon as Marek came on? If it wasn't for Hahnemann getting a touch, Alan Lee would have had a great opportunity to have put Norwich ahead. All of that happened just after Cisse was subbed off for Marek...

[Rex]

What a game, what a result and well done Shane. I will only add that i missed the second goal due to too much mucking around. Shanes' first goal was well taken and he looked more up for it than he has for a long time. The first half was a mixed bag really, slightly tentative but managing to absorb and break down the Norwich attacking play. Norwich certainly gave us more of a game than Derby but that's not too surprising.

Excellent support tonight, i missed most of the inflatables due to having to drink 3 pints in 10 mins and made it up to my seat just in time for kick off.

The second half we got more into our flow and dictated the game just that little bit more than Norwich and after the first goal went in that was it really. Marcus wasn't ever really put under pressure and had the long range shots on goal covered though they were still heart stopping moments.

Great night and SKY must be loving the result tonight.

Only two more results to go right for us and this team will have scraped it into the prem.

[The 17 Bus]

Where is the photo thread, blimey, can we call ya bald Ian now!!!!!

As for giving marks from the telly, you never see the whole picture, so Kitson might have been busy off the screen, seen to be working hard, yet showing nowt on the telly coverage.

[yuomi]

Where is the photo thread, blimey, can we call ya bald Ian now!!!!!

As for giving marks from the telly, you never see the whole picture, so Kitson might have been busy off the screen, seen to be working hard, yet showing nowt on the telly coverage.

does that mean we get to call him camera shy kitson? because, unless my sky+ was off the mark (i wont hear such things said), i felt he could have contributed more...

[Scarface]

All I can say is the game changed when Matejovsky came on we got the ball on the ground and passed it. I've said from the start of the season he should be playing alongside Karacan and I think tonight clearly shows that is the best partnership for passing and quality. Karacan was quality throughout, if only he had played all season.

Agreed mate, it really highlights how totally ineffective James Harper is, as Karacan has the energy to play the holding link player, but he also joins the attack and passes the ball forwards. All these people, including Coppell that say he's the vital cog blah blah blah, hopefully now can see basically he hides.

If we don't go up, these young hungry players must be given the chance.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

I was entertained for the second week running in an away game at Norwich. The performances in recent games are much improved because we are now playing with width and belief instead of the tight midfield we had adopted in February and March which resulted in poor inept performances.

The game for me changed when Matejovsky came off the bench. His ability to hold the ball and pass it on the ground spreading the play was excellent he cut the Norwich midfield and defence to bits.

Karacan gets better and better and clearly shows he has a great future at the top level in the game.. Where was he when we were in a run of bad performances?

Kebe is a frustrating player you never know what you are going to get and what he is going to do but tonight it was two great deliveries from Kebe from the left for Long to score his two gaols. Longy likse to play against Norwich that four this season..

The downer for me on the night was Kitson’s effort up front. Doyle is a much better option who gives you 100% chasing down every ball.

[CMRoyal]

Really good, professional performance from the lads. We were solid(ish) defensively in the first half because we knew Norwich would have to try to impose themselves but once we took the sting out of the game we knew we had the platform to take them apart. We had to take defensive risks to do so, but it worked. I'm a fan of Cisse and thought he did an OK job, but Tabb's my preferred choice in the Makelele role because he tends to be tidier in possession. Presumably he was injured? Number 13? Superb, I've woken up early with a very sore throat.

USA - 6: didn't have much to do, distribution OK
Rosey - 7: seems to have returned to the team in a more cautious frame of mind, but that's probably what we need right now
Doobs - 7: most comfortable performance from him this season
Bikey - 7: solid, won the aerial battle
Harding - 6: bit of a dip after an encouraging game at Derby. Crossing was poor but defensively a good match for Stretch
Little - 5: didn't really get into the game during his brief time on the pitch
Cisse - 6: as others have said, was an average-to-good shield for the defence but it was obvious we needed more craft in there to avoid yet another 0-0
Karacan - 7: usual performance - great energy, good inventive passing, just needs to impose himself over longer periods to really make a diffrence
Kebe - 9: as we've been saying for the previous couple of matches, he's far more comfortable on the left and makes a mockery of S Hunt's inclusion in the PFA team. Just needs a touch more consistency in his decision making but two superb crosses move him from an 8 to a 9
Kitson - 6: I find some of the comments here a bit harsh. Truth is Kits has lost a little of what pace he had and is not brimful of confidence at the moment, so we're getting all we can expect from him - 100% effort and the odd goal here and there. We still desperately need Doyler back, though
Long - 9: not just for the goals - his running off the ball was great all game, he was a real handful, his control is improving all the time, and most of his passsing decisions were good

S Hunt - 7: also looked reasonably comfortable on the 'wrong' flank, and battled gamely throughout
Marek - 7: some superb passes, dictated the play in parts (although probably not enough), but will always give the ball away on occasions when looking to be progressive, and of course got his standard yellow card

Now I'm going back to bed!

[Silver Fox]

Did all the people who've given marks actually go to the game? Because I'm trying to work out what Bikey must have been doing off camera to earn such praise? He looked a bit of a lazy liability in the pub to be honest.

FWIW Shane Long - 11

[Rex]

Aparently Tabb and Armstrong had a bug.