Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:20 am
I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't come away with 3 points, mainly due to their poor start to the season. Yesterday's game was one of those with a couple of coincidences that I always hate. Firstly there was Ross McCormack an old City player, then the fact that they hadn't picked up even a single point this season and the longer that lasted the closer they would come to overturning someone and thirdly it's been widely reported that Felix Magath would loose his job if he didn't get a win soon. I was always feeling on edge travelling to the game, too many things conspiring against us.
As for the game, I've noted all the negative comments from 'we haven't got a team that plays together' to 'Ole Out'. In reality though we are bedding in a whole new side. Look at Man Utd, who even with all their resources are still struggling to find any shape. Their Manager has won European Cups, managed all the Big Clubs and Big Players right across Europe and he readily admits he needs time to get it right. I agree with him and intend to apply the same logic to the City.
For the first twenty minutes of yesterdays game we were well in charge. City played the ball out from the back, looked good in possession and kept our supporters singing. Then came the killer goal from them! Interestingly the guy behind me thought the corner leading to the goal shouldn't have been given against us, but he was wrong it came off our defender. he was right in one respect though, the corner that was awarded on the opposite side of the pitch definitely wasn't and it was the subsequent kick on that side that lead directly to the killer one on the opposite flank.
I'm sure of one thing, if we had scored in that first twenty minutes it would certainly have been a different story.
On Kenwyn Jones is defo a hero with our fans but to me yesterday, right up until his goal, he looked like the same Kenwyn we saw many times last year. He didn't really seem committed to the cause. He won just two headers in the whole first half and at one stage he was actually the same distance from one of Marshall's kicks as was Le Fondre, but he stayed put and let Le Fondre jump for the ball. Needless to say it came to nothing. I thought one of his redeeming features was his strength and ability in the air. Not for me yesterday. If he doesn't put in a full shift, which we seem to accept that he can't, then he needs to win 90% of all the high balls that come his way. otherwise what's his real contribution (4 goals withstanding). Perhaps someone else might have got just as many if they'd played instead of him, who knows.
The crowd were great when Micheda hit the pitch. Lots of great cheering and a few decent songs and at that stage I thought we could go on and win the game. If you get chance to watch the game again look for the pass Micheda made from about 35 yards out when he played the ball wide to Pilkington (I think) with the outside of his boot. That was decent enough but don't take your eyes off Micheda as he turns and sprints with real determination deep into the box, hoping to get on the end of any cross. Maybe this was why Jones' performance was so lack luster. Could be he's seen the writing on the wall for a few games on the bench after Micheda's midweek performance put him clearly in the limelight.
For me we just don't have to panic. Our results are still good an we have two home games to come and a bit of a break before then for Ole to work on a few things to get the lads playing more as a team.