Well, if there was ever a game of two halves, Penises 0 Horns 0 would be it. The first half was basically how we left off against Burnley (yeah, it was that bad), whilst in the second half we decided that we would actually learn how to (a) defend, (b) attack and (c) try and win a game. JH returned, though he looked a little off the pace at times.
That said, he was our far best striker, and just proven what we needed. There were debuts for Lionel Morgan and Peter Hawkins, however no Patrick Agyemang. This surprised me, although it could well be that his lack of effectiveness last week probably forced TB to bring him down to earth. AK played at right back I think, he certainly didn’t appear in his usual LB position, but his injury forced him off.
So, some questions and answers.
What were the good points? The overall second half performance. We didn’t conceed a goal. Kelvin Davies looks the part already. We’re learning to cross the ball into the box. Solid debut for Peter Hawkins once Kimble went off – before that, he was getting skinned. Michael Thomas looked pretty good, certainly the most skillful player on there, though his lack of fitness showed. With JH we exist as an attacking force. Better performances from Gayle and Ardley.
What were the bad points? The first half performance was shocking – it was disjointed, players got in the way etc etc. Trond’s passing/distribution was appauling : any good bit of skill/defending he performed was ruined by his lame passing, though he did play much better in the second half. We still haven’t scored since Villa at SP.
Did Mr 110% play? Yup, he came on as sub. Got a mixed reception, some clapped, some booed him. To be expected I suppose. He put in more effort than most of last season, though that wasn’t particularly difficult. What was the general feeling? More upbeat than last week, acceptance of the first half as “dire”, second half was much cause for encouragement. Radio 5 reckons we’ll win soon (bloody well hope so). Unbelievably, some people booed that performance at the end and at HT.
Do wot? Listen, it may have been crap in places, but when you’re doing a major rebuilding with a higher than average intake of newcomers, they aren’t going to play like Man U in their third game. I didn’t like it under Drillo, I certainly don’t like it now.
Where can we improve? Score some goals, maybe need another CB in there (Dunne?), plus some back-up in LB and RB (or get back KC). Today would have been ripe for either Wild Thang, Hughes or Dry Martini. Midfield needs to know who to pass to. Trond needs to learn to pass.
Can we beat Preston? Don’t see why not, if they can carry that second half performance over….
Final word on Richard Dunne. He’s supposed to be signing next week. He was due to sign yesterday (and get 2 of his suspension matches out of the way by Tuesday), but it seems there’s been a delay somewhere. Now, when we’re claiming that we’ve sorted personal terms and yet others are claiming we haven’t, it does make it difficult to work out where the “fault” lies. Worth remembering though, that half the reason for the delay in the first place was Dunne’s problem with Everton over a Loyalty Bonus – as Everton have a none-too-swift reputation in transfer dealings (who remembers that Brazilian they said they’d signed when the Brazilian turned up at the airport and left half an hour later?), it may not be WFC’s fault for once.