Sunderland (A) 16th Mar, 3pm

As seen on Quest

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iBxw38RyHQKflO5ukkgMije0ADGyKaX3/view?usp=drivesdk

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Sunderland, like Portsmouth, are a slightly above average third division team. Should have got a result, and in my opinion a win. Got the all important goal and then carved them open twice but couldn’t finish,criminal. They were there for the taking.

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A great away day, what an amazing ground…the lads gave there all and sadly it wasn’t enough, the difference between the two teams ??? Simple the finishing.

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A defeat but overhaul a good perfomance deserved a draw and if we had taken chances early on could have won it.
As someone posted saw both sides of Ismail brilliant and then selfish.
Backing from fan great today as team gave us something to back

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Strange to say I enjoyed being there yesterday, witnessing a defeat at the feet of our arch nemesis, but I did. Decent game of football, that the ref and the wind did their best to ruin. Difference between the sides was the quality in the final third. Their defence is no better than ours, and considering the stick our lot gets its incredible to think they are as good as genuine title contenders on a budget 15x or more ours. Finally being organised is such an equaliser.

Keates has some positive selection dilemmas, with Ferrier and Jarvis not even in the squad yesterday, although I saw that Ferrier was there with them.

Note on the subs, Keates still struggling with them even as the three wise men now. Blackett-Taylor unlucky to be withdrawn yesterday.

Let’s hope being on the Evil Sky next Saturday at least adds pressure onto that Barnsley will already be feeling.

UTS

A brilliant day only marred by the result.

I thought the lads played well for most of the game
Agree re Keates and his reading of the game and lack of subs.
I also though Roberts should have done much better with both the goals.
CBT was immense and scared the life out of them, if only DK had used his pace and trickery more …

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Just got back after spending the weekend up there. We tried yesterday and caused them problems at times but they were just too much. That said though, both goals were avoidable and that’s the most annoying thing. Roberts should have done better with both.

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Obviously it was difficult to see from our end for the equaliser but having just watched it, I really don’t know how he squeezed it between Roberts and the post. No way that he should have beaten from that angle.

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That’s the one thing that does irritate me,how many times has Keates commented on “avoidable goals” or “individual mistakes”,at least 20 times and they are still letting in goals,and still making the same comments.

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Sunderland had 60% of the possession, 7 corners to our 1, 14 shots to our 7, with 6 on target compared to our 3. From all the reports we battled hard, but overall the result reflects the fact that Sunderland at home in front of 34,000 fans, backed by a huge budget were too strong for us on the day. No disgrace, and a continuation of the recent improvement in effort. But Keates does not want to say that despite our best efforts we were not quite as good as Sunderland.

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They were avoidable goals though? Particularly the first. Roberts has to do a lot better. There’s no way he should be beaten at that angle.

Agree fully , it’s not these games that could see us relegated.

Great effort from the team on Saturday.

I watched the second half - we had lots of the ball, did very little.

  • The goals we conceded were terrible.
  • Ismail has all the ability in the world, doesn’t channel it into anything useful.
  • I like Joe Edwards, but he doesn’t bring anything to CM that isn’t covered by by LK & GD.
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He’s better box to box than either of them. And it’s not even close.

And I’d normally agree on Ismail but he was outstanding on Saturday, him and Blackett-Taylor were probably our best players.

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Outstanding? what did he do that was outstanding? I saw him take on the same player three times, then play a hospital pass to Devlin - gifting the ball to Sunderland. I also saw him hit the first man several times when he hit the by line absolutely dreadful.

its no surprise that our 7 points from 9 came with the return of Dobson, the bloke is our heartbeat. Lets define box to box? Running around a lot?

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An outstanding run and pull back for Edwards, who did well to make a nice run into the box (see how I combined both my points there?) first half, he then beat two men and forced a save that almost led to a rebound goal, put it on an absolute plate second half for Gordon who’s shot was blocked, just generally was a thorn in their side all game. Not really sure what was absolutely dreadful about his performance but whatever.

Whose denying that?

Haha what a terrible attempt to discredit something perfectly reasonable because it doesn’t fit your point. From that source of perfectly accurate information, Wikipedia:

“The term box-to-box midfielder refers to central midfielders who are hard-working and who have good all-round abilities, which makes them skilled at both defending and attacking. These players can therefore track back to their own box to make tackles and block shots and also run to the opponents’ box to try to score.”

So yeah, a lot of running about. but generally reading the situation to decide when to attack and when to defend, contributing defensively but also getting forward to score goals. I’d say he’s better at that particular job than anyone else in the team personally. I suppose you think he is absolutely dreadful at it though?

Wikipedia strikes again! :joy:

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I’m not on about one match…I’m talking about what Keates has been saying all season long.

There is an argument to be had for playing a “number 10” but that for me is a luxury we cannot afford at this stage of the season. Edwards is our most natural “late run into the box” type midfielder. I think the midfield 3 has been very solid since they’ve been formed.

On Zeli, the guy can go missing but he can also be the most creative player on the pitch. I’d keep him on just because he can change a game. We don’t have many players like that.

I would say, if we did want a number 10 and we had more “wingers” then Zeli could be that number 10.

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We have also had a lot poor team performances with Dobson in the side this season.

I know that most of UTS will regard this as heresy but for all his 100% effort and enthusiasm I am not sure that Dobson really has a good enough first touch, is quick enough in the tackle, or is accurate enough as a passer, in order to sustain a long career at this level.

Not so long ago we had another young player with a brilliant attitude and effort who always gave everything every game. He made more than 150 starts for us before all of a sudden it was realised that his first touch and decision making just was not good enough for this league.

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