Norf'ampton post-match

[Thracian]

Just got back and am starting to become disillusioned with our home form. Creativity is clearly a big problem as Dyer and Gradel were the only players who looked remotely threatening. Fryatt missed what should have been a clearcut opportunity, Howard was plain awful and I'm completely underwhelmed by Andy King.

Having said that, the referee and linesmen were nothing short of atrocious. Their idea of offside seems to be that whenever a winger beats his marker; he must be offside. A professional foul on Fryatt went ignored as well as a fair penalty shout from Howard. This Respect agenda in football is all very well but officials have to warrant respect, and they didn't today.

Is that the same Andy King who put the ball in the net for what would have been his fourth goal but for Howard being offside and who threaded the perfect pass through to Fryatt for what should have been the winner if he'd have only been able to beat the keeper one on one from a central position and with no-one challenging? Oh yes, and who might have had another goal from just outside the 6-yard box if the ball had dropped quicker?

[Asha]

Really frustrating today.

Firstly my voice has completely packed in so trying to sing anything was impossible.

The booing during the match was a disgrace, after the whistle is more justified, but I still didn't.

There is one reason in my eyes why we didn't win this game, which is that the strikers were wank.

2 points dropped.

[syston_fox]

Is that the same Andy King who put the ball in the net for what would have been his fourth goal but for Howard being offside and who threaded the perfect pass through to Fryatt for what should have been the winner if he'd have only been able to beat the keeper one on one from a central position and with no-one challenging?

I think he means the Andy King who repeatedly gave the ball away in the middle of the park and went absent for large periods at times.

[Benji]

Is that the same Andy King who put the ball in the net for what would have been his fourth goal but for Howard being offside and who threaded the perfect pass through to Fryatt for what should have been the winner if he'd have only been able to beat the keeper one on one from a central position and with no-one challenging?

Don't start, he was shocking. Sometimes I go overboard and exaggerate how bad he is on here to get a reaction, but he was not good enough for League 1 today let alone any higher.

The offside flag went up for our goal about 20 seconds before king put the ball in and most of their layers had stopped (yes he scored a great header the other day but this is today). That ''perfect pass'' was the only pass out of 30 he made all day that went to a blue shirt.

[Guest Bilo]

Is that the same Andy King who put the ball in the net for what would have been his fourth goal but for Howard being offside and who threaded the perfect pass through to Fryatt for what should have been the winner if he'd have only been able to beat the keeper one on one from a central position and with no-one challenging?

He gave the ball away far more often than he made any progress today unfortunately, and is all too often out-fought for me. Almost nobody emerged with any real credit today.

[Bert]

I've clearly been to a different game. 11 shots on target?

If you include the one which was ruled offside, we had 2 shots on target. That was all. 2 shots. 2 shots on target. It took 74 minutes to register the legal one - the one-on-one with Fryatt in on goal. Everything else went miles wide.

Who does these stats?

It actually goes down as Kings 4th of the season.

Is that the same Andy King who put the ball in the net for what would have been his fourth goal but for Howard being offside and who threaded the perfect pass through to Fryatt for what should have been the winner if he'd have only been able to beat the keeper one on one from a central position and with no-one challenging?

KING WAS SHIT.

[CKB]

ON A REALLY SERIOUS NOTE THOUGH:

To the people 'boo-ing' the players... go the fook home.

Don't even bother leaving your house.

Save your £20 fooking quid and sit tight, on your sofa and boo at the radio.

You bunch of ignorant ****s.

City smash it up-field and you moan when they lose the ball.

City play it amongst the back four and hold onto it, you moan.

You're a pack of fooking idiots.

You have no right to come to the game and boo, just because you spent £20.

Stop spending the money and stay the fook at home.

Boo-ing isn't going to boost any morale, or any confidence.

Instead of drawing games, we'll lose them.

Then we'll be in League Two, then you'll really be crying your little eyes out.

GAH. I'd love to slap every one of you.

Dicks.

:thumbsup:

As for the match today....

Things need to be shaken up abit maybe a few loan signings might help and Dickov coming back could be a key, one of the strikers should be dropped..do you drop Fryatt with 8 goals or Howard with ummm 2 is it? Fryatt isn't taking his chances (surprise, surprise) but i'd be more inclined to drop Howard simply just because Fryatt has 8 league goals

[Joe.]

Arrrggghhh. The match summed up in one word.

Awful collective team performance, not at all helped by the inept display from our so called strikers. A masterclass in how not to finish today guys, well done. There was no steel in the midfield, it's impossible to praise King today. Kisnorbo continues to show no sort of knowledge to playing the ball along the floor, and this only leads to more Howard abuse from the hoem crowd.

Let's start at the back. Overall, we weren't particularly troubled until right at the end when we nearly threw the game away completely after Berner's ridiculous mistake. However, I wasn't impressed with Kisnorbo or Hobbs at the back today, and Mattock didn't look particularly comfortable either.

Midfield. Is anybody going to take control of the game? King had a mare with his passing today, and rarely found his man effectively. Oakley still can't take the game by the scruff of the neck often enough, but I thought he did distribute some useful balls out wide to Gradel and Dyer at times.

Most of all today I blame the forwards, and unsurprisingly to some of you, Fryatt in particular. Frustrating is the minimum word you could have used to describe his performance. First half- shot from the byline? Second half - Ridiculous 25 yard effort at the end which cannoned off Hayles? Don't even get me started on his one-on-one. I turned around when he was about to shoot, I was that confident he'd miss. As for Howard, he wasn't much better. Some wayward shooting, and even his heading was off today. Still, I feel for him when his strike partner fails to anticipate anything at all.

This home form's got to improve or else we won't find ourselves in the top two come the end of the season.

[lildave3]

I'm actually fuming. Mainly with the people that booed, if you bored today then I have a massive dislike for you. Booing at half time when it's 0-0, booing Howard off, and booing when it finished 0-0, c*nts. Also, i'm a known Fryatt hater, and today proved why. Useless willy puller. Plus, a dislike for the man in front of me, who got his camera out to admire the helicoptor and then to wave at the bloody driver and applaud him, yet when the parade came round at half time, he didn't even applaud. That reminds me, I refuse to applaud a helicoptor.

[Kilworthfox]

How anyone could vote for a popint gained rather than 3 is beyond belief! Today Tunchev, Howard and Oakley were the exceptions to the awful performances put on display. Matty Fryatt and Llody Dyer should have put thios game beyond doubt. For these reasons alone it is 2 points dropped.

Promotion is way off on today's display

[davieG]

I'm actually fuming. Mainly with the people that booed, if you bored today then I have a massive dislike for you. Booing at half time when it's 0-0, booing Howard off, and booing when it finished 0-0, c*nts. Also, i'm a known Fryatt hater, and today proved why. Useless willy puller. Plus, a dislike for the man in front of me, who got his camera out to admire the helicoptor and then to wave at the bloody driver and applaud him, yet when the parade came round at half time, he didn't even applaud. That reminds me, I refuse to applaud a helicoptor.

You should've booed the helicopter.

[Simi]

Matty "Goal Ace" Fryatt. :laugh:

****ing plank, absolute sitter. He was dreadful for pretty much all the match the greedy ****.

[lildave3]

3 games now where we haven't scored in open play.

This is where we ****ed up last season, don't start that bollocks again.

[syston_fox]

I'm actually fuming. Mainly with the people that booed, if you bored today then I have a massive dislike for you. Booing at half time when it's 0-0, booing Howard off, and booing when it finished 0-0, c*nts. Also, i'm a known Fryatt hater, and today proved why. Useless willy puller. Plus, a dislike for the man in front of me, who got his camera out to admire the helicoptor and then to wave at the bloody driver and applaud him, yet when the parade came round at half time, he didn't even applaud. That reminds me, I refuse to applaud a helicoptor.

Woah don't knock the helicopter! That and the half time parade were the only thing that made the trip to the walkers today worthwhile!

[Thracian]

I'm sick of this perpetual blaming of the midfield for all our problems.

a) Did wingers Dyer and Gradel see plenty of the ball? Yes. They were threatening at times and disappointing at others.

b) Did our defence get overrun by people running throiugh from Northampton's midfield and creating openings? No. Northampton were mostly dangerous from dead ball situations, particularly to the near post. Our midfield neutered lots of potential Northampton attacks almost at source through their disciplined covering.

c) Did our midfield support? Yes. King was hitting the penalty box regularly in the second half with what might have been considerable effect and Oakley continued to hit the sensible passes and to relaunch attacks.

No-one suggests they were perfect but our problems today lay elsewhere.

Our defenders, while somehow maintaining a clean sheet, offered very little support going forward, particularly to the wingers. Mattock might have made one or at most two overlaps but that was it. Gradel was on his own. So many defensive clearances were coming out in the air again, it looked just like last year. How daft on a windy day.

As for the wingers getting help from either of our strikers it just didn't happen, Fryatt demonstrated what a frustrating player he is in the first minute when he stared at Gradel as he waited for a pass and by the time he delivered it the danger was gone. Times he just goes his own way without linking play at all.

We had excellent chances to win today's match. King's disallowed goal, Dyer's one on one and Fryatt's one on one. We got nothing from those chances for no reason other than they were either missed or, in King's case, Howard was offside. However, we still managed our eighth clean sheet to preserve a point and our midfielders deserve due credit for their contribution to that because I didn't see much in the way of effective covering/tracking back by Dyer, Gradel, Fryatt and Howard.

[Tilley]

3 games now where we haven't scored in open play.

This is where we ****ed up last season, don't start that bollocks again.

I'll probably get stick for saying this but................

The bubble has burst.

3 points is a must Tuesday night.

[Kilworthfox]

Matty "Goal Ace" Fryatt. :laugh:

****ing plank, absolute sitter. He was dreadful for pretty much all the match the greedy ****.

Well said boyo

[syston_fox]

We had excellent chances to win today's match. King's disallowed goal, Dyer's one on one and Fryatt's one on one. We got nothing from those chances for no reason other than they were either missed or, in King's case, Howard was offside. However, we still managed our eighth clean sheet to preserve a point and our midfielders deserve due credit for their contribution to that because I didn't see much in the way of effective covering/tracking back by Dyer, Gradel, Fryatt and Howard.

If Howard hadn't been offside, he wouldnt have got the ball and therefore King wouldnt have been able to scuff it into the net like he did so you can chalk that one off right there.

and as for the second point highlighted, that, as usual, was down more to our centre halfs being too good for this league than anything else!

[ASH17LCFC]

What aload of wank, deserve to be booed and more. League 1 ffs !!! Our home form is been a problem for years now and doesn't look like getting better. Howard is the biggest disgrace in the team, he's a plank and offers nothing to the team.

Pearson got a month to save his job and thats not even a wind up or a joke, he's gone from a hero to a complete utter plank within 2 matches.

[lildave3]

Woah don't knock the helicopter! That and the half time parade were the only thing that made the trip to the walkers today worthwhile!

People applauding, waving, and taking pictures/videos of a helicopter is ridiculous.

[syston_fox]

People applauding, waving, and taking pictures/videos of a helicopter is ridiculous.

Erm... don't read my blog for this game then

[Joe.]

Let's just be thankful we're still creating chances. I'd be more worried if we weren't doing this. It's just a shame these bastards can't finish them off...

[Tilley]

What aload of wank, deserve to be booed and more. League 1 ffs !!! Our home form is been a problem for years now and doesn't look like getting better. Howard is the biggest disgrace in the team, he's a plank and offers nothing to the team.

Pearson got a month to save his job and thats not even a wind up or a joke, he's gone from a hero to a complete utter plank within 2 matches.

:laugh:

I'll take this with a pinch of salt, yeah.

[lavrentis]

People applauding, waving, and taking pictures/videos of a helicopter is ridiculous.

I remember one last season at Burnley, highlight of the match. I take it was the same one as I didn't go?

[syston_fox]

Pearson got a month to save his job and thats not even a wind up or a joke, he's gone from a hero to a complete utter plank within 2 matches.

This is what happens when Arsenal don't play on a saturday!! Moron