Back from the Game - Burnley

[winchester_royal]

Let's not forget attackers have a part to play.

I thought it was a very clever ball

I thought it was a rather obvious one. Burnley had Harte pinned down as our weakness from the start.

[handbags_harris]

Which brings me to my final player who I'll mention specifically. Harte had a difficult game; I thought we looked exposed every time they came down our left. He could be rather slow but the reality was he gave little away against one of the best wingers in this division. The problems arose through Mears overlapping without anybody picking up on him, a role which should have been McAnuff's. Eagles put in very few deliveries, they largely came from Mears. To expect any left back to handle 2 on 1 throughout the game isn't fair. Harte was also good in possession, very rarely giving it away and offering us something going forward; he nearly scored from 20 yards or so. He's certainly not as good a left back as Shorey and Bertrand these days, but some comments have been overly harsh.

To be fair, many contributors have backed up their opinions on why they feel he had a poor game. The harsh comments come from those who have absolutely no footballing intelligence, merely seeing an immediate issue and picking up on the immediate cause. These people don't have the intelligence to assess the root cause(s), instead focussing on "that was crap because Harte is crap".

But to be honest you echo my sentiments earlier in the thread. Kudos to you brother No disrespect to Snowball on this, but I'm glad we're not the only two who think this way.

[Snowball]

None taken, HH

The one place I never learned to play was FB. I got laced all the time and I was VERY quick, just didn't have the football brain for it.

CF, RW, CB were a piece of piss by comparison.

I actually wrote before the game that Burnley would target Harte if he played. I wondered if McDermott would play Armstrong because of it.

[cmonurz]

As a left-back I got around my poor sense of positioning, and turning circle of a hovercraft, by rarely venturing beyond the halfway line. I was the Gary Ablett of full-backs.

[westendgirl]

Didn't see the Long penalty incident, but I thought Jobi claimed for one in the first half, which I thought would have been harsh if it had been given.

Just seen the video on the BBC website which is a longer version of the Football League Show and both penalty incidents are shown. The Jobi one would have been soft but the Shane one was a hand in the small of the back - even the commentator mentioned the obvious shove. Given the lions were being proactive I am surprised the west stand lino didn't flag.

[Mr Angry]

Didn't see the Long penalty incident, but I thought Jobi claimed for one in the first half, which I thought would have been harsh if it had been given.

......the Shane one was a hand in the small of the back - even the commentator mentioned the obvious shove..

That was my immediate impression as well; hey ho - swings and roundabouts and all that....

[ZacNaloen]

With the Jobi incident the attacker ran across him blocking his run, both were penalties in my (biased) eyes

[chilipepper91]

With the Jobi incident the attacker ran across him blocking his run, both were penalties in my (biased) eyes

The problem with Shane's was that he got the shot off. I only remember one penalty given after a shot's been taken, that was Gerrard's on the first day of the season a few years ago, and that was massively controversial. Otherwise, any time a player's taken out either by a defender or a keeper after getting the shot off, the ref would be forced to give the penalty.