BFTG - Brighton

[Royal Ginger]

Could have won that several times over.

1 -Norwood's early free kick and forced a brilliant save
2 - Blackman's clear header towards the end of the first half. From the north east corner it looked harder to miss.
3 - Vydra's miss
4 - Hector from 6 inches at the end thanks to a suspect handball

Brighton's defense were solid, although Dunk looked like a liability. I've never seen a player shank so many clearances in one match.

Blackman owned the playmaker role today.
Vydra doesn't get involved often but when he does it's usually a bit special.
Sa was almost channeling Noel Hunt today in performing his defensive duties admirably

Negative stuff -
I don't see the point in Hurtado, completely ineffectual, seems completely off key with the rest of the team.
If Williams is going to shoot from distance he needs to a) kick it harder b) not to give everyone in the stadium a 10 second warning whilst he's lining it up.
Taylor grew into the game, but his positioning is questionable. Got saved quite early by an off-side, where id the Brighton player was 6ft further back and onside, he'd still have been well away.

[Royal Ginger]

Not really getting the Hector hate. Apart from that backpass, thought he had a good game, and did very well for our goal.

Agreed, weights'd their striker a few times too, which is always lovely

He was mostly good, but he did have a wobbly 10 minutes when everything he did was s**t around the 60 minute mark.

[genome]

Can I just say, the amount of people who left well before the final whistle, while the game was in the balance, was embarrassing.

[P!ssed Off]

Negative stuff -
I don't see the point in Hurtado, completely ineffectual, seems completely off key with the rest of the team.
If Williams is going to shoot from distance he needs to a) kick it harder b) not to give everyone in the stadium a 10 second warning whilst he's lining it up.

Agreed on Hurtado. We signed some good players in the Summer as well as some right duds. We'd be no worse off with Stacey, Fosu and Kuhl as cover than Hurtado, John and Fernandez. Finances would be healthier too.

As for Williams, there should really be no if he shoots from distance. He just shouldn't be shooting from distance.
He's had the most shots from outside the box in the whole Championship: 31
He's scored from none of them, and I don't recall any hitting the woodwork or troubling the goalkeeper either.

Clarke needs to have three chats really. Tell Williams his long shots are shit and not to bother. Tell Hector not to shoot at his own goal. Tell Vydra that the next time he passes when one on one with keeper he'll be taken off immediately.


Blackman was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Al-Habsi decent again.

[blueroyals]

AAH - 6: looked solid

Gunter - 5: he can't cross, so why does SC let him?
Hector - 3: two poor performances in a row, time to be dropped
McShane - 6: solid
Taylor - 6: solid

McCleary - 5: ineffective
Williams - 6: poor decision making at times but always driving forward
Norwood - 7: fantastic
Blackman - 8: Messi

Sa - 6: good hold up play but there's more to his game than that, and we've not found out how to get it from him yet (bar Ipswich)
Vydra - 7: scored but should have done better 1v1

The last few games have felt a little conservative to me. We're capable of scoring goals but we never seem to get out of second/third gear for 90% of recent games. More to come from this team...

[sandman]

Re Hurtado.

Many said similar about a certain Bobby Convey during his first season.

Takes a bit for some players to get used to the Championship as a league and that's made even harder when you are in a new country in which you don't speak the language.

[bcubed]

A good point. Brighton were organised and effective, but as about 7 or 8 other teams in the Championship fall into this category, they were nothing special. We played well, but looked short up front (which is daft considering the way Clarke wants us to play). At the back we looked fairly solid and it was nice to see us bounce back from conceding! Overall I'm pleased, but to me this is another result that shows it play-offs at most for us this year.

Agreed
Don't get the Brighton love, thought they were organised but hardly threatening, apart from when they had several corners in a row.
Still think they will falter

[bcubed]

They were very well organised, but I thought we were unlucky not to win.

The 3-1 should have been buried, not sure if it was a penalty but we shouldn't have needed one. That said they came back briefly after our goal and had we scored the three on one there's no guarantee they wouldn't have gone up a gear, they seemed to sit back and be happy with the one goal lead.

Agree with the cynicism. At one point we put one of their defenders on his arse in the last ten and he put his hand out to grab the ball as I think Blackman looked to surge through the gap. Ref didn't see it naturally.

I was unusually sat in Y19 and was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere there normally being in Y26. Mrs St Pauli had her first reading game today and only second live football game. She said the atmosphere at the ground compared well to an Arsenal 5-0 drubbing of someone, said it was a lot more tense.

Was also in Y19 instead of Y26 and was also pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. I suspect it was only that good because the stand was near enough full, but even so really unexpected and enjoyable

[Royal Ginger]

Re Hurtado.

Many said similar about a certain Bobby Convey during his first season.

Takes a bit for some players to get used to the Championship as a league and that's made even harder when you are in a new country in which you don't speak the language.

Fair point. Not writing him off, but it looks to me like he desperately needs a pre-season with the team. He couldn't look more disconnected, and I'm sure that's restricting his chances to shout us what he can do. More practice matches? A spell with the U21s? I don't know, I'm not a coach, but judging by his 3-4 cameos I don't think he should be in the squad, and certainly not at the expense of the likes of Stacey, Fosu and John

[Basingstoke Royal]

Game we should have won comfortably. Should give us confidence if that is the supposedly the best team in the league. Leagues arent won in october. They wont be there come april. More worried about boro and hull than this lot.

AutomatIc promotion is definitely on.

Quietest full away end i have ever heard.

[bobby1413]

Oh and can I also say, that the homophobic chants are not banter and not funny, it's really just stupid.

[Pepe the Horseman]

. Tell Hector not to shoot at his own goal.

[Snowball]

A point is fantastic.

Can't agree with that adjective. We are at home, trying to compete for automatic, and the top six. We need to win home games. The only way a point is "fantastic" is if we've come back from 2-0 or 3-0 down in the dying minutes, or we did it with a player off.

Having been 0-1 down I was happy to take the draw, just about

BHAFC were really solid and surprised me. I had read people on here saying they hadn't played many top sides.

Solidity under Chris Hughton isn't a surprise, and even against the bottom 13 W8 D5 (before Saturday) is very decent

Whatever the case, they are a really decent side. Id bet they get promoted as they look solid and decent.

I do NOT think they'll make the automatics and I'd expect them to finish 5th-6th-7th

Look how the other sides are gathering, Hull, Burnley, Boro, Derby, ourselves, Wednesday...

Wednesday might just do them on Tuesday (cue big Brighton win!)

(Don't think Birmingham are quite top-six quality)

I expect at least 3 of Hull, Burnley, Boro, Derby to finish above Brighton

Very happy to earn a draw. Some saying Blackman diving or going to ground a lot. Not sure as I didn't notice ... Anyone Else see that?

He was being manhandled, shirt-tugged, fouled throughout the game (ref let them get away with a lot) and IMO when he is at CF he's less effective as it was very congested there. Either a floating role or wide of three is his best. He needs to start in space.

Have to say he is still improving and I'll be amazed if he signs for us (unless we have a get-out clause)

[TFF]

I go to football to be entertained - and that was a very entertaining match.

Obviously would have liked to go on and won it but they were a good side and put in an excellent away performance. They'd definitely have taken a point before the game.

Sometimes going a goal down makes an for an excellent game doesn't it? The determination to do something about it on the pitch, and the desire in the stands, made for a great atmosphere in the latter stages.

[Snowball]

Only 2 points from the last 9 is concerning, we've fallen away a bit so will need to have a run of good results now to get back to where we were after the Charlton game.

Agreed it's "concerning" but 14 from the last seven is championship form.

I'll be thinking a lot more pessimistically if we fail to beat Huddersfield, but if we beat them that's 17 points from 8

When we were all looking at the next six games (Huddersfield being the sixth) would we not have been happy with W3 D2 L1
when it included the favourites for the league (Boro) and the unbeaten top side (Brighton)

IMO, 1-1 at Rotherham is not bad (but we should have got the second and finished it). The "shock" was losing at Fulham, but I said when I predicted my next six games that they were a big worry. They had torn QPR to shreds (and they are now clear top scorers in the league)

So in this six games we will have played the top side in the league, the bookies' favourite for the league, and the top-scorers in the league.

That ain't easy!

The game that frustrates me is Fulham. I'm sure if Fulham's first goal had been blocked or skied we'd've gone on to win comfortably. It just came at the worst moment and lifted Fulham and the crowd. Had we won that we'd've been far better v Brighton.

Small margins. The top seven as they are now all look decent (less sure about Birmingham) and Wednesday are getting better and Wolves might creep up the table. If Fulham stiffen their defence they could easily end up top six.

To me there are two leagues this year and the top half is very very tight. The winners of that top league will probably get there by hurting the others in the top 8.

We can get a result (decent chance of a win) at Cardiff. Then we have Bolton, Forest, QPR, Preston, before the tough game away to Hull

If we haven't got back into the mix by the Hull game...

[bcubed]

Only 2 points from the last 9 is concerning, we've fallen away a bit so will need to have a run of good results now to get back to where we were after the Charlton game.

Agreed it's "concerning" but 14 from the last seven is championship form.

I'll be thinking a lot more pessimistically if we fail to beat Huddersfield, but if we beat them that's 17 points from 8

When we were all looking at the next six games (Huddersfield being the sixth) would we not have been happy with W3 D2 L1
when it included the favourites for the league (Boro) and the unbeaten top side (Brighton)

IMO, 1-1 at Rotherham is not bad (but we should have got the second and finished it). The "shock" was losing at Fulham, but I said when I predicted my next six games that they were a big worry. They had torn QPR to shreds (and they are now clear top scorers in the league)

So in this six games we will have played the top side in the league, the bookies' favourite for the league, and the top-scorers in the league.

That ain't easy!

The game that frustrates me is Fulham. I'm sure if Fulham's first goal had been blocked or skied we'd've gone on to win comfortably. It just came at the worst moment and lifted Fulham and the crowd. Had we won that we'd've been far better v Brighton.

Small margins. The top seven as they are now all look decent (less sure about Birmingham) and Wednesday are getting better and Wolves might creep up the table. If Fulham stiffen their defence they could easily end up top six.

To me there are two leagues this year and the top half is very very tight. The winners of that top league will probably get there by hurting the others in the top 8.

We can get a result (decent chance of a win) at Cardiff. Then we have Bolton, Forest, QPR, Preston, before the tough game away to Hull

If we haven't got back into the mix by the Hull game...

Exactly this.

We were playing so well with such skill and confidence that had we held on it would have carried on to the Brighton game for sure. And I think we would have beaten them comfortably

Instead it sSeemed like we were very hesitant against Brigton and took most of the first half to recover
.

[RG7Fan]

Couple points I saw with regards to the fans.

1) What were we booing in the second half? I assumed it was because the players somehow oxf*rd up a 3 vs 1 so badly they didn't even have a shot but reading here people are saying there could have been a penalty in the build up.

2) What the oxf*rd was with Brighton's glory glory Brighton and Hove Albion song? I get why Spurs and Man Utd sing it but Brighton have won oxf*rd all, what glory do they have to sing about?

Just looked at the TV coverage (all 1 minute of it - thanks Ch5!) and it looked like the goalie trip Vydra as he was trying to shoot, so maybe that was it.

[Pandoras Box]

Good entertaining game but I feel we have lost the immediacy or the smash and grab style we had earlier in the season when everyone started creaming their pants. Ferdinand-McShane was a solid unit and we miss Quinn for speed and work rate. We've gone back to that slow passing build up, with telegraphed passes relying on Blackman to do the bit that makes the difference. It works ok but it will guarantee typical championship 5th-12th placing.

[Platypuss]

IMO, 1-1 at Rotherham is not bad

Really?

Derby 3-0 Rotherham
Rotherham 1-2 Sheff Wed
Rotherham 1-1 Reading
Brentford 2-1 Rotherham
Rotherham 1-2 Burnley

Not forgetting:

24 Rotherham 14 -12 9

Certainly feels like a poor result for a team which wants to finish above Derby, Sheff Weds and Burnley.

[genome]

We were perhaps victims of circumstance with that one. Brand new manager and a squad full of players determined to fight for their place, they were bound to find another level, that has since probably dropped off since the Sheff Weds loss which was only 3 days after our match. Injuries started to affect us too.