Was back in Norway
by midnight yesterday after another great weekend in UK! I still don't
understand why no Norwegian pubs can import some real ale...
Brian took Isberg,
Raffe, Matt and myself to the London Comedy Store to get a fun warmup to the
game on Sat, and with Matt appointed as my travel manager we past the entire
line at Paddington on Sun morning. No hassle with the journey to Cardiff, nor
the walk to the list meet pub, even if someone were pouring buckets of water on
us! Was seated not far from Mark, and we actually found the pub after the game
as well.
Post match-curry
seem to be a standard to complete a nice day out, and at Gatwick yesterday I
actually found a pub doing Tetleys, not bad end to the trip at
all.
I was no toruist
this time, i.e. no sightseeing, no shopping (except for finding the stuff Mette
wanted from the taxfree shop), I was there for the game. So here we
go:
The
game:
Just having read a
bunch of excellent postings, though there probably are 64,736 opinions of the
game.
As it turned out, we
wouldn't derserve a win, and I think we lost it a week ago, actually. We looked
like we were clueless, "sorry for being picked", "can we get this game over
with, I'm off to Spain for my summer holidays", "what was our tactics again?",
etc.
Tactics were, if
existent, wrong; very wrong! We were supposed to play defensively for the first
40 minutes or so. That is some masterplan in a cup-final, isn't it? Against a
team we knew would come running at us, players we knew were fast indeed, a side
really wanting to win. They prepared themself by going to Cardiff, have a look
at the stadium, touch the grass, walk around the stands, visit the hotel they
were staying at. They prepared themselves properly, and their manager knew
enough about Leeds to make a plan on how to destroy our machines. It seems to me
that all these facts were not considered by Blackwell, he just hoped for
the Preston-away leg over again. He was not able to make his men comfy before
the game, a game Leeds should go out to rule from the very start of it. We could
never see that GBP 40 million was at stake here.
Then Hulse
lost his man at a corner. From my point of view, playing 4-5-1, the single
striker should not be anywhere near our own box on a corner in the first half!
We surely must dare to leave one player in the center cirkle, that will prevent
them putting to many players in our box, and it would be a good start for a
counter attack if we win the ball. Also, a defender would deal with the
situation that actually occured in another manner. If only Killo had played
central defender!
Anyway, now
would have been the time to change tactics. We should have chased an equalizer.
Have to admit, only poor refereeing stopped us for having a penalty, but still
we didn't create much. We had to hope for a transformation 2nd
half.
It did never
come. At the start of 2nd half we should've been really running at them, but no.
We just waited until we were another goal down, then we could see some glimpses
of effort. Typical for the occasion, 2nd goal came after a throw-in that had
been given the wrong way. And the ball was going as a whirlwind, Sullivan was
unlucky and the scoring itself was out of good fortune
only.
Our efforts
and opportunities were wasted, and I'd say that the one they cleared off the
line was another example of their luck. Then the penalty finished the
game.
Statistics
prove that we had a little more posession than them, we were equal in terms of
shots and shots on target etc., so I'd say the result 0-3 itself is flattering.
But even if the ref made some mistakes, even if they had a little bit of luck,
we were outplayed at the day and they deserved the win. That leaves us with 1.3
mill. for ground maintenance, and a lot of arguing and questioning about our
manager.
IMHO I think
it's fair to give him another year. Why he was given a 3 year contract just
recently, I have no idea! We all know the cost of sacking a manager before
contract runs out. There might be some clauses in it?
Even if we are
questioning his ability, he has done what he was asked to this season
overall. That is enough for Bates. I think the club just rated the play-off as a
bonus, and sort of didn't take it seriously
enough.
Next season
there will be another pressure on Balckwells shoulders, promotion is the
goal to go for. As the cup-side we are, that means 1st or 2nd in the
Championship. Until then; "Who wanna play in the Premier League,
anyway?"
Øystein
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Phone: +47 906 43 514
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"The miracle today is communication. So let´s use it."
- John Lennon 1969
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