Quote ="carl_spackler"Overall a better result than performance, although we worked really hard for it so all credit to the players. Think we were a bit predictable and dull at times, but as I said in my other post, the offsides made it hard to play much differently at times. Several decent performances, but players that particularly stood out to me were Horne, Ellis, Turner, Lynch, O'Carroll, and Manu.
Whilst he is undoubtedly having a great season, I have one slight constructive criticism of Houghton: He is starting to run from dummy half almost every time, even if it may not be the best option. Sometimes tonight with the persistent offsides it could have done with quick passing direct from the ptb instead IMO, so that we could speed up the ball movement to the wider players. He needs to vary his play a bit more so that the opposition have doubts in the mind about what he is going to do, it will only serve to make him even more threatening in possession.'"
I'd agree with most of that, though I thought the performance was excellent under the circumstances. Rewind twelve months and we'd have lost that game, without question. It certainly wasn't what you'd call expansive, but I think that was mainly down to the game plan for the night rather than any failing on the part of the players.
