Poor result, average performance

Don't think we played that badly tonight, we played some decent stuff but the final ball & Winnall's finishing let us down.

I still stand by the view that this team will better as the season goes on & out of the 14 involved tonight I'd say only Lita, Cranie, Nyatanga & Bailey have reached their peak, there's lots of development & improvement to come from the rest of the side.

Bailey was very good tonight. Great passing & broke up play well, also won the ball high up on a couple of occasions.

Brown looked very good as the right sided centre half, it seemed to suit him much more than playing as a full back. I felt Bailey deserved MOTM but Brown wasn't far behind.

A good debut for McHale who looks like someone who could be a real threat off the bench, his running at players reminded me of Sterling (obviously not as good).

Bree did fairly well too. Didn't get caught out defensively, got up & down the wing & his first touch & short passing was good. Only his final ball let him down a couple of times. You can see why he's highly rated though.

We're going to have to get used to teams that are well organised that get numbers behind the ball & break on us. Crewe & Crawley have both done it to good effect against us.

Ratings:

Davies 5 - can't seem to make his mind up

Bree 6

Brown 7

Cranie 6

Nyatanga 5 - maybe wrong but looked to play a part in both Crewe goals

Noble-Lazarus 5 - struggled. Looked better later on when he had freedom to get forward

Bailey 8

Hourihane 6 - played well for the most part but them 2 corners drag his rating down

Treacy 6 - plenty more to come when he gets fit

Lita 5 - not in the game

Winnall 4 - Awful finishing. 3 great chances & he snatched at 2. Unlucky with the header but his all round play was poor

Subs:

McHale 7

M'Voto 6 - did his job & roughed them up. Good knockdown for Winnall

Nana - not enough time to rate, did he even touch the ball?

 

We may find that this team is much better suited to playing away from home. Sit tight and kill teams on the break when they leave gaps. But we will need pace. On another note I spoke to a couple of Scottish lads tonight who said that Hemmings is the fastest player they have seen. Just hope he gets fit soon.

 

That sounds good. I think with the way Winnall is struggling & Lita needing to get fit Hemmings is a massive loss