Leicester 0 Preston 1 - Reactions

[reynard]

Well, I rest my case.

Kelly played the team he should have played at the beginning in the second half - and I don't particularly mean Sylla either.

What pissed me off was that out came the chosen men and we handed the initiative to Preston from the off.

They scored and said right, break us down. Good job. Cos if they'd really attacked us first half they'd have had three or four.

Only when Porter and Hammond came on did we have some passing and moving but it was too late. Preston had manned the barricades and were organised enought o stay intact.

Kelly to my mind signed his death warrant.

If I were Mandaric and I'd watched our last three performances - never mind some of the others - the only thing I'd want from RK is his resignation.

Why? For not having belief in his players. Simple as that.

I won't elaborate because it's a pointless exercise and I don't feel at all happy about the situation.

But that's the truth. We play at home and it's us that kow-tow's, us that bows down. If that were my excuse for a team first half team I'd have admitted my limitations and gone down with my ship.

At least the last half hour we showed some ability to pass and retain the ball, and ability to get into the front portion of the field, even the penalty area on occasions.

But even then our confidence and imagination is lacking. Tiatto, who never hid for a minute, revealed himself as a one-trick pony on free kicks. Porter retained possession, passed and moved, made some space, kept maintaining the width but he was systemised into playing at half cock.

RK doesm't kid me if he thinks he kids others. There's too much system and not enough imagination in his preferred team and it's increasingly proving too much of a handicap.

Time and again I've explained how we can dominate possession even with the limited players we've got but no. We go defence biased, concede the initative and put ourselves under pressure. It is folly. And if it doesn't change then, far fromfighting for a top six place, we'll be fighting to stave off relegation again.

More later. I'm, going to have my dinner.

don't know if you were watching the game or not but first up preston's forward play was some of the best i've seen for a long time at this level and we had no answer to it. their movement off the ball was excellent and nugent a class above anybody else on the pitch.

as for who else could have played who else was available

williams injured

wesolowski injured

johnson injured

o'grady injured or not match fit

mccarthy supended

dodds out on loan

de vries out on loan

kenton injured

so cut the rubbish about the chosen men this time there wa no real choice.

as for porter his performance showed why he is not yet ready to be a regular starter.

1 he was consistently not strong enough on the ball and lost possession on at least 8 occassions because of this.

2 he never made any runs into space to receive a pass in an attacking position and sopent most of his time too deep and too wide and did not seem to be able to see space into which to move.

3 he made 1 or 2 good runs but never offered any end product in the shape of good crosses or through balls.

hammond made some difference with his pace but again his performance should be scrutinised

1 1st touch simply dreadful

2 didn't see simple passes to other players in better positions

3 should have scored 1 on 1 with the keeper

on the first 1/2 i agree with you but we simply do not have the players with enough enterprise and skill to play the sort of game you imagine.

there is also a huge difference between youth team football and playing against a well organised in form championship team. from what I have seen of our wonderkids very few if any are anywhere near ready for regular 1st team action.

as for the chosen men who are they and who are the alternatives currently available to kelly. and please don't go on about youth team players. they are not ready yet so who else do we have?

[Daggers]

As much as we attacked...

Nah in all honesty, we did attack today...

Attack? Did we bollox.

We had two...TWO shots at goal and never looked like being anything other than second best. We managed to convert many a potential attack into a retreat that shifted the ball back 30-40 yards. We managed to pump long balls to no one. We failed to control passes, thread balls or support play off the ball.

Credit to PNE, they played superbly in the first half and contained us sufficiently in the second.

Considering there are only sixteen healthy squad players I'd now like to see some of the young ones being used, there's not enough players with the desire or the ability.

Our back four were adequate, but made stupid errors again and again. The lax passing across the box was frightening and we were lucky not to have conceded more.

Danny and Hughes were full of running, but the other two were absent for most of the game.

Up front, Fryatt may as well have stayed in Fusions ****ing restaurant after his matchday program interview...because he was absolutely shit on the pitch. If he'd bothered to pass instead of glory hunt in front of the cop we could have had a goal.

Porter, again, spent more time moving the ball back to our goal line than going forward...and Low...oh for ****s sake, I'm running out of words for that tw*t.

I was moved by Birch's announcement of the EGM vote, I was moved to boredom by the play on the pitch.

Anyone looking over at Kelly will have seen his frustration as players on the pitch failed to follow instructions and play to ability.

*Irrational statement coming*

Sell the ****ing lot and buy a new team in January, apart from Low...give him away as next weeks Foxlot prize.*

I feel sorry for the Season Ticket holders. Another terrible show.

Thank you. I feel sorry for myself too!

[lcfc_jme]

Attack?. As promised I went to the Academy match today. I'd announced Friday that the Academy team would have more shots in first half than the first team do in a month. They didn't let me down.

Faced with the sun and a severe gale in their faces for the first half I wondered if they might sit slightly further back than normal.

You're joking. True to type Beaglehole camped his entire side around and in front of the half-way line and gave Bristol not one second of peace.

If the ball was hoofed out of Bristol's defence, City's centre-backs either won it themselves or shepherded it through on the wind to Alex Cisak and the attack was relaunched.

Result? Four nil at half-time, six nil at the end and the figure I want everyone to remember is NIL. Leicester didn't get caught on the break because Bristol were too busy getting to ball or finding time to make a sensible pass. Or picking it out of the net.

By their standards I didn't City were outstanding after half-time. But Bristol didn't come into it. The game was all about what Leicester were going to do. They didn't so much impose their game as establish a Stalinist dictatorship from the fifth minute onwards when they notched their first goal.

People say I'm blinkered but there were senior people at Belvoiir Drive today saying its a pity the first team don't play in the morning and the Academy side at the Walkers in the afternoon.

That my friend was attacking. I know Leicester didn't attack much and do you know why, apart from my own eyes? Because the Kop hardly made a sound. Not a peep throughout the first half. They sat their as disspirited as I've ever seen them or failed to hear them.

Kelly insulted them with his tactics. Some might forgive him, but I don't feel that way.

I feel, as I've always felt, that he should have picked a football team and had a go.

I can stand losing. What I cannot stand is tactical surrender.

Thrac I know exactly what you're saying, and this is another reason why I said it wouldn't be a bad idea for RK to maybe have a chat with Steve Beaglehole (an idea which wasn't taken seriously by many on here as I've come to expect). Beaglehole treats his crowd very nicely and gives them pure attacking, in your face, smash-mouth wonderful to watch football. And I applaud him for that, as it is more than working and people do enjoy watching his academy side play. RK on the other hand names quite a defensively loaded team and doesn't go for the jugular. Instead, he is content to soak up pressure and seems resigned to the fact that we may end up conceding, and so we do not push forward and try to score many goals. Now, I know the 1st team didn't play like the academy side today, I'm not that daft, but by the standards of the 1st team and RK's tactical standards, we attacked more than we usually do, having 19 shots on goal and 13 on target, and if wasn't for poor finishing and a strong display from their keeper, we could have had 3 or 4 goals. You may say we did not attack, but they are the statistics I am seeing, and it reads a lot better than it usually does.

The Kop have not got a lot to shout about just lately, because they have come to expect us to defend and/or have to be content with us scoring two and conceding either 2 or 3. This is no fault of their own, this is the fault of the players on the field and the tactics employed by Kelly.

You really don't understand me. I, like you, have always thought that a football team should be balanced with attacking players and defensive players, or if anything we should play more attacking players than defenders. I also have the mentality regarding football, both when I play and when I go to support my team, that Brazilian coaches or Real Madrid coaches have: Throughout the 90 minutes of a football match, it doesn't matter how many goals we concede, 'cos we're always gona score at least 1 more than the opposition.

Sadly, with the lack of quality and creativity we have in midfield at the moment, and because RK is scared of losing games instead of being confident he can win them, we do not have this mentality. You don't have to play scintillating 1 touch football in order to win games. Simply keep the ball away from the opposition players, keep the ball moving, move into spaces for your team-mates, talk to each other and actually work as a team. And if you lose the ball, get straight into the opposition, don't allow them time on the ball and put them under pressure. Chances are they'll make a mistake and you'll either nick the ball off them or they'll hoof it long/into touch. This to me is the way football should be played. Beaglehole may use bits of it. But Kelly doesn't use much of it at all.

[davieG]

don't know if you were watching the game or not but first up preston's forward play was some of the best i've seen for a long time at this level and we had no answer to it. their movement off the ball was excellent and nugent a class above anybody else on the pitch.

as for who else could have played who else was available

williams injured

wesolowski injured

johnson injured

o'grady injured or not match fit

mccarthy supended

dodds out on loan

de vries out on loan

kenton injured

so cut the rubbish about the chosen men this time there wa no real choice.

as for porter his performance showed why he is not yet ready to be a regular starter.

1 he was consistently not strong enough on the ball and lost possession on at least 8 occassions because of this.

2 he never made any runs into space to receive a pass in an attacking position and sopent most of his time too deep and too wide and did not seem to be able to see space into which to move.

3 he made 1 or 2 good runs but never offered any end product in the shape of good crosses or through balls.

hammond made some difference with his pace but again his performance should be scrutinised

1 1st touch simply dreadful

2 didn't see simple passes to other players in better positions

3 should have scored 1 on 1 with the keeper

on the first 1/2 i agree with you but we simply do not have the players with enough enterprise and skill to play the sort of game you imagine.

there is also a huge difference between youth team football and playing against a well organised in form championship team. from what I have seen of our wonderkids very few if any are anywhere near ready for regular 1st team action.

as for the chosen men who are they and who are the alternatives currently available to kelly. and please don't go on about youth team players. they are not ready yet so who else do we have?

So, what about the eight times, (when I gave up counting) that Tiatto gave the ball away whilst under no pressure? Also I'd be surprised if Porter was on the pitch long enough to have received the ball 8 times never mind lose possession 8 times.

[dandannieldanok]

Attack? Did we bollox.

We had two...TWO shots at goal and never looked like being anything other than second best. We managed to convert many a potential attack into a retreat that shifted the ball back 30-40 yards. We managed to pump long balls to no one. We failed to control passes, thread balls or support play off the ball.

Credit to PNE, they played superbly in the first half and contained us sufficiently in the second.

Considering there are only sixteen healthy squad players I'd now like to see some of the young ones being used, there's not enough players with the desire or the ability.

Our back four were adequate, but made stupid errors again and again. The lax passing across the box was frightening and we were lucky not to have conceded more.

Danny and Hughes were full of running, but the other two were absent for most of the game.

Up front, Fryatt may as well have stayed in Fusions ****ing restaurant after his matchday program interview...because he was absolutely shit on the pitch. If he'd bothered to pass instead of glory hunt in front of the cop we could have had a goal.

Porter, again, spent more time moving the ball back to our goal line than going forward...and Low...oh for ****s sake, I'm running out of words for that tw*t.

I was moved by Birch's announcement of the EGM vote, I was moved to boredom by the play on the pitch.

Anyone looking over at Kelly will have seen his frustration as players on the pitch failed to follow instructions and play to ability.

*Irrational statement coming*

Sell the ****ing lot and buy a new team in January, apart from Low...give him away as next weeks Foxlot prize.*

Thank you. I feel sorry for myself too!

Great sum up of the match, you should write for the Mercury ahead of Bill Anderson .

[OBO]

Apart from their goal I thought we put up a pretty solid defensive performance. Just absolutely no desire to push forward and grab a goal, apart from 10 minutes or so towards the end of the second half. Pretty pathetic really, a neutral fan watching this game would surely have fallen asleep.

I don't understand why some people are saying Nash had a really good game for Preston. He hardly had anything demanding to do and the saves he did have to make were made much easier by the fact the shots were invariably straight at him

[Thracian]

don't know if you were watching the game or not but first up preston's forward play was some of the best i've seen for a long time at this level and we had no answer to it. their movement off the ball was excellent and nugent a class above anybody else on the pitch.

as for who else could have played who else was available

williams injured

wesolowski injured

johnson injured

o'grady injured or not match fit

mccarthy supended

dodds out on loan

de vries out on loan

kenton injured

so cut the rubbish about the chosen men this time there wa no real choice.

as for porter his performance showed why he is not yet ready to be a regular starter.

1 he was consistently not strong enough on the ball and lost possession on at least 8 occassions because of this.

2 he never made any runs into space to receive a pass in an attacking position and sopent most of his time too deep and too wide and did not seem to be able to see space into which to move.

3 he made 1 or 2 good runs but never offered any end product in the shape of good crosses or through balls.

hammond made some difference with his pace but again his performance should be scrutinised

1 1st touch simply dreadful

2 didn't see simple passes to other players in better positions

3 should have scored 1 on 1 with the keeper

on the first 1/2 i agree with you but we simply do not have the players with enough enterprise and skill to play the sort of game you imagine.

there is also a huge difference between youth team football and playing against a well organised in form championship team. from what I have seen of our wonderkids very few if any are anywhere near ready for regular 1st team action.

as for the chosen men who are they and who are the alternatives currently available to kelly. and please don't go on about youth team players. they are not ready yet so who else do we have?

If you looked at the team I suggested there were no more kids than today really. The only addition would be Andy King.

People seem to ignore my assertion that you cannot play part of a football team - you have to play the whole, united side.

Despite our injuries and suspensions there were enough options and enough opportunities to sideline the dead wood.

Playing people out of position is never anything but an emergency option. Playing wingers who cannot score is daft.

Playing too many defensive players in a team is also folly.

Playing centre-forwards who aren't fit is tactically suicidal.

It wasn't as if I waited until after we'd been beaten to say so.

Why do we insist on learning the hard way?

You have to go all out to win - either matches or Leagues. You cannot start at a canter and gradually buiild up to it. You start flat out and if someone falters you replace them with someone else to maintain the momentum.

[vanfox12]

Attack? Did we bollox.

We had two...TWO shots at goal and never looked like being anything other than second best. We managed to convert many a potential attack into a retreat that shifted the ball back 30-40 yards. We managed to pump long balls to no one. We failed to control passes, thread balls or support play off the ball.

Credit to PNE, they played superbly in the first half and contained us sufficiently in the second.

Considering there are only sixteen healthy squad players I'd now like to see some of the young ones being used, there's not enough players with the desire or the ability.

Our back four were adequate, but made stupid errors again and again. The lax passing across the box was frightening and we were lucky not to have conceded more.

Danny and Hughes were full of running, but the other two were absent for most of the game.

Up front, Fryatt may as well have stayed in Fusions ****ing restaurant after his matchday program interview...because he was absolutely shit on the pitch. If he'd bothered to pass instead of glory hunt in front of the cop we could have had a goal.

Porter, again, spent more time moving the ball back to our goal line than going forward...and Low...oh for ****s sake, I'm running out of words for that tw*t.

I was moved by Birch's announcement of the EGM vote, I was moved to boredom by the play on the pitch.

Anyone looking over at Kelly will have seen his frustration as players on the pitch failed to follow instructions and play to ability.

*Irrational statement coming*

Sell the ****ing lot and buy a new team in January, apart from Low...give him away as next weeks Foxlot prize.*

Thank you. I feel sorry for myself too!

I feel sorry for myself too but its not just the season ticket holders who are suffering its anybody who bothers to pay and watch them at the moment.

[Floating Fox]

We were poor. So was the crowd in teh first half.

Syalla is totally a Disgrace to this Club, Wingers are meant to make runs, not stnad around and wait for the ball to the feet for fooooks sake.

Low was nearly as bad when he came on.

Hughes had a good game for once though

[Thracian]

So, what about the eight times, (when I gave up counting) that Tiatto gave the ball away whilst under no pressure? Also I'd be surprised if Porter was on the pitch long enough to have received the ball 8 times never mind lose possession 8 times.

If only it were that simple. The thing for me about Tiatto today was that he was seen to cock-up. He didn't try to hide or to pass responsibility to someone else. He took responsibility and it didn't always come off.

I would never want players of mine afraid to take responsibility for fear of being pilloried for a cock-up. There's a time and replace to take risks of course and I'm sure the players know that, but the main thing with city's first hour team was the complete lack of movement. It was painful to see.

Preston had movement in abundance. If players don't make space people like Tiatto cannot make accurate passes.

That's not quite the same as Kisbnorbo or Nils on occasions who look at easy passes, ignore them and try something more complicated.

Tiatto needed attackers to support and offer themselves. It didn't happen and it was only when Porter and Hammond came on that passing was easier for everyone. Sadly, though, it was too late and Hammond didn't take the one real chance we had (though he was there to have it!).

Like I say, Kelly should have played a positive team from the start...and it's a mistake he's made far too often.

[Matt]

Normally when we lose i'm unhappy and upset that is because we normally play quite well but lose, today i'm angry at how we played but no excuses we deserved to lose, We were shit, No one of our players impressed me today in past games when it looked like the rest of the players couldn't be arsed Hume ALWAYS looks up to win and give 110% but today not even Hume looked up for the game, Wheres the team that almost beat Villa? I know its not exactly the same team but its only minus a few players...Disappointed.

Milan's probably asking the question "WTF am I bidding for?!" no doubt he'll be considering canceling his offer for the club.

[Guest Gist]

Normally when we lose i'm unhappy and upset that is because we normally play quite well but lose, today i'm angry at how we played but no excuses we deserved to lose, We were shit, No one of our players impressed me today in past games when it looked like the rest of the players couldn't be arsed Hume ALWAYS looks up to win and give 110% but today not even Hume looked up for the game, Wheres the team that almost beat Villa? I know its not exactly the same team but its only minus a few players...Disappointed.

Milan's probably asking the question "WTF am I bidding for?!" no doubt he'll be considering canceling his offer for the club.

I doubt that. It's because we are in a mess he is coming.

[Thracian]

Great sum up of the match, you should write for the Mercury ahead of Bill Anderson .

I love it when views come straight from the heart. :thumbup:

[DB11]

They weren't in it from the off and they were PANTS in front of goal. Although credit where credit's due... their keeper was outstanding!

[Swedging]

We had two...TWO shots at goal

Proper shots that looked for a while like they could have gone in? I'd have said 4 minimum. 2x Hume, 1x hammond, 1x Hughes. Then there are those that were wild... Did you settle down for a kip at some point?

[Daggers]

I love it when views come straight from the heart. :thumbup:

I am still trying to work out whether it was a question of desire or tactics that cost us the game.

Judging by Kelly's reaction on the touchline during that first pathetic hour of play I am guessing the desire was the largest factor...and that saddens me, that I have more heart for the game than most of the players on the pitch today.

I will never understand a player, who pockets a decent salary, that walks out onto a pitch and simply watches play go on around him. If they had an ounce of honesty there would be a stack of resignation letters on Kellys desk on Monday morning.

If I was Kelly, I'd accept Low's.

[The People's Hero]

Saved at the feet of Hammond too, although Hammond has shown in the past that he struggles to score past average 'keepers nevermind ones that are showing good form.

Can you honestly say that you'd back him to score past a blind keeper? Or in to an open net?

He struggles to hit the target.

He is an absolute waste of space. No qualifier, no ifs and no buts to that statement. Pathetic.

[Yaxx]

Because the Kop hardly made a sound. Not a peep throughout the first half. They sat their as disspirited as I've ever seen them or failed to hear them.

That's 'cos most of us had nodded off.

Seriously though, this was a very poor performance - although not as bad as some of those we had to endure last season under Levein. Even so, Preston hardly broke out into a sweat in the second half.

Sitting watching today, I just got the impression that there were a number of players out there who, quite simply, didn't give a toss. Given that things are obviously going to change in the New Year, you would have thought they would all be playing out of their skins for a place.

Come January, they should be given the good news and sent on their way.

[Wils]

What a complete waste of a journey and money.

[dandannieldanok]

What made today's performance even worse was the fact that Preston and the referee handed us several attacking platforms through awful panicked clearances and poor decisions which we duly threw back in their faces.

[Thracian]

Thrac I know exactly what you're saying, and this is another reason why I said it wouldn't be a bad idea for RK to maybe have a chat with Steve Beaglehole (an idea which wasn't taken seriously by many on here as I've come to expect). Beaglehole treats his crowd very nicely and gives them pure attacking, in your face, smash-mouth wonderful to watch football. And I applaud him for that, as it is more than working and people do enjoy watching his academy side play. RK on the other hand names quite a defensively loaded team and doesn't go for the jugular. Instead, he is content to soak up pressure and seems resigned to the fact that we may end up conceding, and so we do not push forward and try to score many goals. Now, I know the 1st team didn't play like the academy side today, I'm not that daft, but by the standards of the 1st team and RK's tactical standards, we attacked more than we usually do, having 19 shots on goal and 13 on target, and if wasn't for poor finishing and a strong display from their keeper, we could have had 3 or 4 goals. You may say we did not attack, but they are the statistics I am seeing, and it reads a lot better than it usually does.

The Kop have not got a lot to shout about just lately, because they have come to expect us to defend and/or have to be content with us scoring two and conceding either 2 or 3. This is no fault of their own, this is the fault of the players on the field and the tactics employed by Kelly.

You really don't understand me. I, like you, have always thought that a football team should be balanced with attacking players and defensive players, or if anything we should play more attacking players than defenders. I also have the mentality regarding football, both when I play and when I go to support my team, that Brazilian coaches or Real Madrid coaches have: Throughout the 90 minutes of a football match, it doesn't matter how many goals we concede, 'cos we're always gona score at least 1 more than the opposition.

Sadly, with the lack of quality and creativity we have in midfield at the moment, and because RK is scared of losing games instead of being confident he can win them, we do not have this mentality. You don't have to play scintillating 1 touch football in order to win games. Simply keep the ball away from the opposition players, keep the ball moving, move into spaces for your team-mates, talk to each other and actually work as a team. And if you lose the ball, get straight into the opposition, don't allow them time on the ball and put them under pressure. Chances are they'll make a mistake and you'll either nick the ball off them or they'll hoof it long/into touch. This to me is the way football should be played. Beaglehole may use bits of it. But Kelly doesn't use much of it at all.

I don't know what the stats say but I remember one decent Hume effort first half, the chance which Hammond saw deflected over the bar and a couple of other efforts at the far end which I couldn't see clearly but sounded close.

I was in the centre of the Kop and I have honestly never known them so silent right from the off.

It was almost as if they'd heard the team and knew exactly what to expect, as I did. We've failed to win six of our 10 League games at home now which should tell any manager that something is wrong.

And our 18 goals scored so far in 18 games is far too low and nine less than bottom club Southend, not counting what happened to them today.

I mentioned that we'd not score enough goals in the summer - not with our current midfield - and so it has proved. In fact it has been slightly worse than I had calculated, and that was bad.

Much more and we'll have a confidence crisis too as players start to be more concerned with not making mistakes rather than with trying to make things happen.

Kelly will doubtless come out with something about not becoming assumptious when we win and not panicking when we lose and that's as maybe but he does need to think and he does need answers quickly.

They won't be easy to find at Derby who seem to have managed to build an effective and fairly freescoring side far quicker than we have.

The genuine attacking opportunities - home games and when we had a bit of leeway after the Leeds game - have been wasted for the gathering of no new information about ourselves whatsoever.

The next two away games will be torrid battles, make no mistake. There's no way he'll try making major renovations in those. So that means, for now, he's snookered himself.

There's lessons to be learned for sure - about the consequences of standing still and not developing the side when he's winning...of using a defender instead of an attacking midfielder, of using provenly ineffective right wingers and of keeping an in form natural striker away on loan.

Trouble is it would have been much easier to have introuduced the above in stages from a winning situation rather than one of increasing crisis.

Defies all logic to me that we didn't.

[Yaxx]

Post match comment from Kelly:

"But we did not ask enough questions of them. We didn't do enough to win it."

We did f**k all!!

[lcfc_jme]

I don't know what the stats say but I remember one decent Hume effort first half, the chance which Hammond saw deflected over the bar and a couple of other efforts at the far end which I couldn't see clearly but sounded close.

I was in the centre of the Kop and I have honestly never known them so silent right from the off.

It was almost as if they'd heard the team and knew exactly what to expect, as I did. We've failed to win six of our 10 League games at home now which should tell any manager that something is wrong.

And our 18 goals scored so far in 18 games is far too low and nine less than bottom club Southend, not counting what happened to them today.

I mentioned that we'd not score enough goals in the summer - not with our current midfield - and so it has proved. In fact it has been slightly worse than I had calculated, and that was bad.

Much more and we'll have a confidence crisis too as players start to be more concerned with not making mistakes rather than with trying to make things happen.

Kelly will doubtless come out with something about not becoming assumptious when we win and not panicking when we lose and that's as maybe but he does need to think and he does need answers quickly.

They won't be easy to find at Derby who seem to have managed to build an effective and fairly freescoring side far quicker than we have.

The genuine attacking opportunities - home games and when we had a bit of leeway after the Leeds game - have been wasted for the gathering of no new information about ourselves whatsoever.

The next two away games will be torrid battles, make no mistake. There's no way he'll try making major renovations in those. So that means, for now, he's snookered himself.

There's lessons to be learned for sure - about the consequences of standing still and not developing the side when he's winning...of using a defender instead of an attacking midfielder, of using provenly ineffective right wingers and of keeping an in form natural striker away on loan.

Trouble is it would have been much easier to have introuduced the above in stages from a winning situation rather than one of increasing crisis.

Defies all logic to me that we didn't.

You're basically arguing this one with yourself Thrac, honestly. I am in agreement with almost everything you say, so much so that people have told me that me ideas are daft and that there's no way my attacking approach would ever be considered 'cos it just doesn't solve any problems and would make us vulnerable.

The only thing I ever disagree with you about is the amount of younger lads you'd like to see brought through at any given time. 2 or 3 a season should be enough, we can't go bringing 4, 5 or 6 younger lads through at any one time because we aren't confident enough, we don't suit their playing style and it'd be way too risky.

You know as well as I do what is going to happen when we travel down to Derby, and it'll piss me off just as much as it will you. But more so because it is predictable and useless than anything.

We desperately need to start experimenting and being more adventurous when we're at home, as Kelly would probably find that it'd work a lot better than his current system and the fans would get behind the team more. This would help results start flowing, which would breed confidence. This would spread right through the side and maybe even change our away-day policy. Defending is vital to winning football matches, but you generally tend to find, as the first team are at the minute, that if you do not attack and score goals, you do not win games and generally need to do more defending than necessary. If these so called professionals cannot see this then maybe they're in the wrong job.

[Wils]

Post match comment from Kelly:

"But we did not ask enough questions of them. We didn't do enough to win it."

We did f**k all!!

I possibly done more than them on my train journey home and i didnt move for three hours.

[Magictv]

We were crap as everyone seems to realise. But I have a question.

Why did we stop using the multi-ball system in the second half?