Pinnock played more intelligent attack minded potentially defence opening balls than the rest of the team put together- just by pushing it past the player pressing him and then releasing it to someone in space. He is class. Central midfield looked ordinary indeed. Brown and Bahre - with each touch you never know whether you're gonna get good or gash. Last 20 minutes you needed someone on the bench to come on and run at and maybe through them. Someone like Moncur perhaps. But there were no hint of fireworks. Who else have we got now to light a damp fuse? We might need something on days like these.
Had one of those early chances been taken, I believe we would’ve seen a very different game and think we would’ve scored more. Burton would’ve had to abandon plan A and leave more gaps in midfield.
Just one of those days. Couple of non regulars starting, new game plan. And then Burton parking the bus. Nailed on snorefest.
Nigel must be smarter than the average League 1 manager. I suppose with those crowds and resultant budget he's a young man's Keith Hill. We looked short on something tonight. Apart from centre halves, both of whom looked ready to play a league above.
Nigel is known for packing the midfield and playing one up top blades fans used to call him negative Nigel. I thought it was strange to go 433 against a team like that but it's one game were still 2nd Burton are midtable.
Thought Burton came with the same game plan as Wycombe, the difference being we didn’t put any of our chances away , they never looked like scoring , couple of top saves from their keeper . Really missed the Kieffer option tonight
Well it worked for Nigel. It can't have worked for him each away game otherwise they'd have a better record than they have. They've lost 7 away from home.
Yeah it's one game if it wasn't for moore scoring late on against sarfend another team who parked the bus and wasted as much time as possible that would have been the same outcome.
We should be thankful that Portsmouth won't play those tactics at home! I think Mowatt has had 3 bad games now, I'd be seriously considering playing Dougal on Saturday.
Can't disagree. Tonight is a game where we missed Kieffer. We were very easily knocked off the ball & the few chances we had mainly fell to Bahre, who seems to have a mental block in front of goal.
Nothing went for Bahre tonight. Shot cleared off the line and then he banged one over. Worse still was his heavy pass to Mowatt with the goal in sight, and a underhit pass when we had gone numbers down their left in the 1st half. Hopefully get Moore back soon because Bahre isn't a reliable starter. Moments of brilliance followed by mediocrity. I also hoped that Hedges would do ok as a starter, but there wasn't much there to nail down a start in the next game.
Hedges never inspires me. One good pass on Saturday and one or two goals a season. Just not good enough.
Summed it up in last 5 mins when mowatt, our creative midfielder had the ball in the middle of the park and he played it back to pinnock to just launch it forwards for another 50/50 ariel challenge. Same with mcgeehan - 2 freekicks late on where we could have pushed folk up and he taps it off to the side for it to come straight back and be under pressure and it ended up back wi davies. Not enough balls to feet all night. Shame we dIdnt capitalise on out game in hand but it may turn into an important point.
I thought we had too many having off days last night but that was compounded by very limited options from the bench. Hedges looked great in the first 15 minutes pacey and direct, put in 2/3 great crosses then faded. I think that’s the worst performance I’ve seen from Cauley, nothing seemed to sick and he missed the target when you’d expect him to score. All credit to Burton for doing a job on us but I’d hate to watch that type of anti-football week in week out.
With us being 2nd in the league, that would suggest there is only one team harder to nullify than us. Weird post.
Was listening to Derrick Parker on way to match and he didn't seem to rate Hedges very highly. Said he was a bit surprised at his inclusion and that he'd seen very little to impress during his time with us.