Withdean Wanderer
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Great Result!
Preston v Brighton [Official thread]
- Thread starter Edward Scissorhands
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dougdeep
New member
AJ's Love Monkey said:By the way Yorkie its now Andrew Johnson 4 Dean hammond 2 just in case you didnt know!
Is Johnson a midfielder then? stupid boy.
RexCathedra
Aurea Mediocritas
Re 'Time Bandits': Fidgit?
Northstander
Well-known member
- Oct 13, 2003
- 14,036
UP TH FRENCH!!!
dougdeep
New member
We'll win on Monday. Don't worry.
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Good result - win on monday and its a decent start
London Irish
Well-known member
It was like Rorke's Drift at times - but a fantastic point which I reckon we just about deserved thanks to an improved second-half performance 
We had a bit of luck today given the poor quality of Preston's finishing, but for me this was overdue given the fluke free-kicks that took points off us against Reading and Crewe and that deflected long-shot last week at Hull.
A fascinating game decided as much by our steady industry as Preston's increasing frailties.
McGhee again continues to confound and amaze with his team switches, I guess if it keeps us guessing, what must it do to the likes of Billy Davies? But all very hard to read too much into it given McGhee's insistance on fielding specfic teams for specific opponents.
With Carole, Knight, Robinson and Jarrett as our 4 most advanced players, there would obviously be some concern that we would suffer in the aerial game - but McGhee gambled that Preston's bigger centre backs could be moved around by our smaller guys. To an extent it worked, particularly in the second half as Preston got more frustrated with their own forward play.
To add my usual pretentious gloss on this - it all brought to mind that philosophy football shirt I saw in the National Football Museum today, with Jean-Paul Sartre saying "In football
everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team..."
What complicates judging how well we did today was that I think Preston are in a bit of a bad patch. In losing Lewis and Cresswell, that it the real cutting edge of their team gone and they are struggling a bit to find an end product to their precise and at times pretty football.
They also brought back Mawene but dropped their big Oatway-style stalwart Lucketti. I think at times it led to Preston looking very tentative and not really able to take advantage of some of the chances we were giving them. Even at the end they had two clear chances to win but it seemed inevitable they would miss. You can undestand that stat from their Carling Cup exit the other night that they had 30 chances and missed nearly them all. Preston have problems up front now.
That said, Preston are still a decent footballng team and I thought it was a difficult first half for us. Preston got behind us on a number of occasions through their blond highlight players McKenna and Sedgewick. But what saved us was that their apparent player of the season thus far Dickson Etuhu was having a very ordinary game, that and the good defensive work of McShane, Butters, Reid and Henderson. Nugent doesn't seem to be coping well either with the responsibility of the main striker now Cresswell has gone. Agyemang brought on in the second half looked miles more dangerous and I am very pleased we did not have 90 minutes of him.
I thought out best moments revolved around the play of Carole, whose running and surges tends to be more focused and craftier than Jarrett's, IMHO.
Jake had a couple of early chances but shot straight at the keeper with the first and had a poor first touch for the second. At times, he was a bit wasteful with possession but his movement was as bright and as demanding of the Preston defence as you would hope. Leon never got too many opportunities and had a quiet game.
With the 4 small guys up front, it was obviously important that Chippy and Hammond competed well and tackled hard in the rear midfield to add some solidity to this attacking 4-4-2. They did that without perhaps having that creative spark we all yearn for.
Bringing Hammond into the centre obviously requires the sacrifice of forcing him to play much deeper - but that appears what many on NSC want. The downside of this is, of course, that I can't recall a time today when he got a run into the opposition box. Whether his goal threat is nullified, we will have to see, but it's a concern. On his passing performance, he was average in the first half but got better in the second as the confidence of the Albion grew.
But the big plusses for me today were the clean sheet - big kudos to the defence - and Carole's continuing rise as our main playmaker.
Here's my ratings:
Henderson 7
Dodd 6
McShane 8
Butters 7
Reid 7
Carole 8
Carpenter 7
Hammond 6
Jarrett 6
Knight 6
Robinson 6
Hart 7
McCammon 6
What we can read into all this for the team for Plymouth, who knows. I'm guessing that whatever McGhee tells the Argus or the Official site, though, might not actually be what we see when we turn up on Monday. He's doing his job by keeping us all guessing
We had a bit of luck today given the poor quality of Preston's finishing, but for me this was overdue given the fluke free-kicks that took points off us against Reading and Crewe and that deflected long-shot last week at Hull.
A fascinating game decided as much by our steady industry as Preston's increasing frailties.
McGhee again continues to confound and amaze with his team switches, I guess if it keeps us guessing, what must it do to the likes of Billy Davies? But all very hard to read too much into it given McGhee's insistance on fielding specfic teams for specific opponents.
With Carole, Knight, Robinson and Jarrett as our 4 most advanced players, there would obviously be some concern that we would suffer in the aerial game - but McGhee gambled that Preston's bigger centre backs could be moved around by our smaller guys. To an extent it worked, particularly in the second half as Preston got more frustrated with their own forward play.
To add my usual pretentious gloss on this
- it all brought to mind that philosophy football shirt I saw in the National Football Museum today, with Jean-Paul Sartre saying "In footballeverything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team..."
What complicates judging how well we did today was that I think Preston are in a bit of a bad patch. In losing Lewis and Cresswell, that it the real cutting edge of their team gone and they are struggling a bit to find an end product to their precise and at times pretty football.
They also brought back Mawene but dropped their big Oatway-style stalwart Lucketti. I think at times it led to Preston looking very tentative and not really able to take advantage of some of the chances we were giving them. Even at the end they had two clear chances to win but it seemed inevitable they would miss. You can undestand that stat from their Carling Cup exit the other night that they had 30 chances and missed nearly them all. Preston have problems up front now.
That said, Preston are still a decent footballng team and I thought it was a difficult first half for us. Preston got behind us on a number of occasions through their blond highlight players McKenna and Sedgewick. But what saved us was that their apparent player of the season thus far Dickson Etuhu was having a very ordinary game, that and the good defensive work of McShane, Butters, Reid and Henderson. Nugent doesn't seem to be coping well either with the responsibility of the main striker now Cresswell has gone. Agyemang brought on in the second half looked miles more dangerous and I am very pleased we did not have 90 minutes of him.
I thought out best moments revolved around the play of Carole, whose running and surges tends to be more focused and craftier than Jarrett's, IMHO.
Jake had a couple of early chances but shot straight at the keeper with the first and had a poor first touch for the second. At times, he was a bit wasteful with possession but his movement was as bright and as demanding of the Preston defence as you would hope. Leon never got too many opportunities and had a quiet game.
With the 4 small guys up front, it was obviously important that Chippy and Hammond competed well and tackled hard in the rear midfield to add some solidity to this attacking 4-4-2. They did that without perhaps having that creative spark we all yearn for.
Bringing Hammond into the centre obviously requires the sacrifice of forcing him to play much deeper - but that appears what many on NSC want. The downside of this is, of course, that I can't recall a time today when he got a run into the opposition box. Whether his goal threat is nullified, we will have to see, but it's a concern. On his passing performance, he was average in the first half but got better in the second as the confidence of the Albion grew.
But the big plusses for me today were the clean sheet - big kudos to the defence - and Carole's continuing rise as our main playmaker.
Here's my ratings:
Henderson 7
Dodd 6
McShane 8
Butters 7
Reid 7
Carole 8
Carpenter 7
Hammond 6
Jarrett 6
Knight 6
Robinson 6
Hart 7
McCammon 6
What we can read into all this for the team for Plymouth, who knows. I'm guessing that whatever McGhee tells the Argus or the Official site, though, might not actually be what we see when we turn up on Monday.
He's doing his job by keeping us all guessing
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To London Irish
Jean-Paul Sartre saying "In football
everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team..."
I thought he said "Hell is other people" which is rougly the same thing.
Question: what was Chippy's role in the system?
Was there an identifiable holding role midfielder? Cutting out (like Curbsihley did for the Albionin the distant past).
In 5-3-1 or 4.-3-3 sometimes there is a central midfielder running the diagonal across the pitch from corner to corner (usually left back to right wing). Not that I have ever seen an Albion player do this?
Or did both Hammond and Chippy fall back?
Cf. Carole and Penney (distant past) ?
Rambling a bit.
Jean-Paul Sartre saying "In football
everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team..."
I thought he said "Hell is other people" which is rougly the same thing.
Question: what was Chippy's role in the system?
Was there an identifiable holding role midfielder? Cutting out (like Curbsihley did for the Albionin the distant past).
In 5-3-1 or 4.-3-3 sometimes there is a central midfielder running the diagonal across the pitch from corner to corner (usually left back to right wing). Not that I have ever seen an Albion player do this?
Or did both Hammond and Chippy fall back?
Cf. Carole and Penney (distant past) ?
Rambling a bit.
London Irish
Well-known member
perseus said:
That was my impression, but remember Preston did have a lot of possession today.
Henderson 7.5 would have been 8 but for the mad moment
Dodd 7
McShane 9 MOM
Butters 6 for the first half (or was it the knock that affected him) 7 for the second half
Reid 6 I thought he struggled today at LB
Carole 8
Carpenter 6
Hammond 6
Jarrett 7
Knight 6
Robinson 7
Hart 7
McCammon 6
Dodd 7
McShane 9 MOM
Butters 6 for the first half (or was it the knock that affected him) 7 for the second half
Reid 6 I thought he struggled today at LB
Carole 8
Carpenter 6
Hammond 6
Jarrett 7
Knight 6
Robinson 7
Hart 7
McCammon 6