BFTG - Huddersfield

[Royal_jimmy]

Poor game, was a good win though against an alright side. They did not create anything and Andersen did not have a save to make really. Credit needs to go to our guys for stopping them playing. We created sod all apart from Blackman's goal which was well taken. That was the only scoring chance of a very scrappy game. It was a good day out in general ruined by a stupid accident on the M1 around junction 13 which meant I didnt get home until 11

Here are my ratings:

Andersen - 7: Dealt with crosses well and his kicking was alright. Did not have to do much to be fair but he did the basics right.
Gunter - 7: Played alright, had the better of their winger and overlapped well though he was caught offside a couple times.
Pearce - 8: Good performance. Led the team well.
Hector - 9: MOM. Was all over the back, never gave their players a sniff. The best I have seen him play. He could be a real diamond for us in a couple seasons.
Obita - 6: Did what he needed to at left back. His crossing was rubbish though, certainly not playing as well as he was last season.
Mackie - 4: Was pretty poor, deservedly subbed and probably would have been sent off had he stayed on. Excellent decision to replace him with Blackman in the second half. Probably still struggling with his injury still.
Williams - 7: ran the midfield well. Gave the ball away a bit though!
Guthrie - 7: solid, still looked like he was struggling a little with his calf. Hopefully he will stay fit.
Norwood - 5: quite disappointed with him. A bit too lightweight on the ball.
HRK - 7: Great ball to Blackman for our winner. Other than that he was a bit anomalous but worked hard. Looks like he is really struggling for confidence.
Cox - 3: Struggled up front on his own, he needs a player like Murray or someone who can hold the ball up alongside him. He was ineffective and gave the ball away plenty of times that I noted.

Subs:
Samuel - 7: showed glimpses of potential. Ran his socks off and almost got us a goal after forcing a mistake from one of the Huddersfield defenders. Held the ball up pretty well.
Cooper - 6: Was not on for long. But helped see the game out so he gets a 6.
Blackman - 8: Gave the opposition a bit to think about. Took the full back on a few times and won, well taken goal as well. I think he should be an impact sub.

Manager: - 8: effective tactics for an away game. Good substitutes at good times.
Fans: - 6: 400 or so fans went up. Not bad considering it was a dull cup tie. Most were quiet though.

[sandman]

Huddersfield fans on twitter been moaning about us cheating.

It was generally a niggly game. We were in the ref's face a lot, too often for my liking. A few times we held on to the ball after a decision, or kicked the ball away. Not sure it it was deliberate tactics or not.
But Huddersfield were playing the gamesmanship card too. Almost every time we put in a tackle they went to ground and made it look like we were really roughing them up, which we weren't.
In both cases I don't think the approach helped the game in any way, and if Clarke is wanting us to become a bit 'nastier' I think he's misguided , or not making it clear what he wants. You rarely profit by getting on the wrong side of the ref and Mackie was a bit of an idiot, a player who forces his manager to take him off at half time to avoid a red card needs to think about his contribution to the team.

Not misguided at all, have lost count of the amount of times over the last few years that we've had refs who constantly favour the opposition. Reading teams are far too nice and it's about time we got after the refs to try and get those decisions in our favour.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Agreed.

[Nameless]

If you think a policy of constant arguing and obvious dissent is going to win anything from refs then you are wrong !
It's of course possible to influence refs but the way we were doing it yesterday was quite obviously the wrong way to do it.
I have no problem with us being a more assertive team but it's a waste if you use all your energy persuading the ref he might be wrong.
Harps used to be a master at the art of ref management, much better to get the ref on your side than have him against you
Take a look at how some of the top rugby captains operate to see how it's done, there are no footballers even come close to the way most All Blacks captains can run games.....

[Hoop Blah]

So, apart from perhaps it being part of a more defensive setup, is the general feeling amongst those that went that Cox leading the line on his own didn't really work out?

Also, was Blackman for Mackie just a straight swap and he went on the right wing or did we also change shape or move players around a bit to accommodate the change?

[sandman]

If you think a policy of constant arguing and obvious dissent is going to win anything from refs then you are wrong !
It's of course possible to influence refs but the way we were doing it yesterday was quite obviously the wrong way to do it.
I have no problem with us being a more assertive team but it's a waste if you use all your energy persuading the ref he might be wrong.
Harps used to be a master at the art of ref management, much better to get the ref on your side than have him against you
Take a look at how some of the top rugby captains operate to see how it's done, there are no footballers even come close to the way most All Blacks captains can run games.....

Works for everyone else and they're getting the ref on their side against us all the time! We've tried being nice to refs and it doesn't work.

Lets not get into the rugby v football thing again, two totally different sports.

[LWJ]

So, apart from perhaps it being part of a more defensive setup, is the general feeling amongst those that went that Cox leading the line on his own didn't really work out?

Also, was Blackman for Mackie just a straight swap and he went on the right wing or did we also change shape or move players around a bit to accommodate the change?

Cox worked incredibly hard up front but had no support at times. I think the formation we tried to play in the first half was;

------------Anderson---------------
-Gunter Hector Pearce Obita-
--Williams Guthrie Norwood--
Mackie---------------------------HRK
--------------------------------------------
------------------Cox---------------------

HRK had an anonymous first half, and I don't recall Obita ever overlapping him which didn't help. With the 3 central midfielders all wanting to sit and control the ball we had no forward movement so any attack/counter attack slowed right now and pretty much meant we lumped a ball up to Cox who got outnumbered or muscled off the ball.

With Blackman coming on, my impression of our formation went something like;

------------Anderson---------------
-Gunter Hector Pearce Obita-
Guthrie Williams Norwood HRK
-----------------Cox------------------- (these two seemed to swap between them throughout though, so don't take it as gospel)
-----------------Blackman-----------

Which meant we sat further up the pitch and defended from the front, very good change and won us the game IMO

[Christof]

So, apart from perhaps it being part of a more defensive setup, is the general feeling amongst those that went that Cox leading the line on his own didn't really work out?

It didn't work at all - Cox spent all of the first half chasing shadows, and nothing stuck when it went to him, as we were normally lumping it up against the (by comparison) giant centre-backs.

Also, was Blackman for Mackie just a straight swap and he went on the right wing or did we also change shape or move players around a bit to accommodate the change?

When Mackie (a walking red card if ever I've seen one) was taken off, Guthrie was pushed further right, Blackman went up top and Cox dropped into the 10 role. This helped, as it stopped Norwood, Williams and Guthrie stepping on each others' toes.

Can't honestly remember ever seeing a first half as bad as that. Huddersfield had no quality, we had no threat. Only light relief was the spray being used, and seeing Jem warming up.
Second half was better due to the change in shape - Cox buzzed about as before, but with Blackman also occupying the defenders we could be more direct through the middle (hence the goal), or use the channels more effectively.
Kudos to the defence for stopping Huddersfield having a shot on target, and well done to Clarke for recognising Mackie's red mist. Better teams would have got at us more, and pulled us wider, but they didn't. Clarke's challenge is to do something with Robson-Kanu, who really did not look bothered for large parts of the game - we have all seen him do good stuff, but it is so infrequent.

Final notes - I'll never ever complain again about the speed of the catering at any ground without comparing them to Huddersfield, and would like some of whatever the Huddersfield commercial department were smoking when they came up with the idea for a newspaper as a programme!

[paulkirkwood]

Here's my report and pics of what it was like to be at Huddersfield on Saturday:

http://facupgroundhopper.blogspot.co.uk ... ing-1.html

Here's hoping [from my selfish, Yorkshire-based point of view] that the Royals are sent north in the next round!

Paul.

[Nameless]

If you think a policy of constant arguing and obvious dissent is going to win anything from refs then you are wrong !
It's of course possible to influence refs but the way we were doing it yesterday was quite obviously the wrong way to do it.
I have no problem with us being a more assertive team but it's a waste if you use all your energy persuading the ref he might be wrong.
Harps used to be a master at the art of ref management, much better to get the ref on your side than have him against you
Take a look at how some of the top rugby captains operate to see how it's done, there are no footballers even come close to the way most All Blacks captains can run games.....

Works for everyone else and they're getting the ref on their side against us all the time! We've tried being nice to refs and it doesn't work.

Lets not get into the rugby v football thing again, two totally different sports.

Two utterly bizarre, not to say myopic responses !!
Clearly our attempts to bully the ref failed on Saturday, whereas when we had Harps managing the ref we tended to do extremely well on the discipline front. How you can suggest Mackie's behaviour (and one or two other players) is any kind of sensible way of influencing officials is just odd. Claims that every other team bullies refs into going against us is the kind of one eyed thinking that was pointed out after the last home game. It's just wrong.
And why you feel looking at other sports for lessons is a bad thing I cannot fathom, it's something all top managers and coaches do constantly and the fact that other sports are much more advanced in the way they deal with officials, and the intelligence of their captains does put football to shame. It's not football vs rugby, it's about finding ways to get more out of the game.

[Hoop Blah]

Out of interest Nameless, in what way did we bully the ref and in what way didn't it work for us?

I'm confused on the lessons we can take from rugby too. Aren't we always being told that their respect and treatment of officials is exemplary? Surely they don't do anything to influence the judgements and decisions during a game?

[handbags_harris]

Their players talk to a referee with respect, and when told to shut up they do so because they know the result if they don't. Basically rugby referees have the tools required to deal with situations and players, and they are more than willing to use them. Football referees have the tools, but won't use them at all.

[Hoop Blah]

I get that bit HH, just wondering how they manage the ref so much better and more effectively than football.

I don't watch rugby so it's a genuine question, although I think there's a bit of a conflict between the notion of total respect for the ref and the act of managing him to perform in your teams favour.

[handbags_harris]

They don't really, as the ref has total has absolute control of a rugby match. You get the feeling a football referee doesn't as he's having abusive comments flung his way left, right and centre.

[Hoop Blah]

They don't really, as the ref has total has absolute control of a rugby match. You get the feeling a football referee doesn't as he's having abusive comments flung his way left, right and centre.

But Nameless said they do, and I can't believe he'd make that up.....

[Ian Royal]

They don't really, as the ref has total has absolute control of a rugby match. You get the feeling a football referee doesn't as he's having abusive comments flung his way left, right and centre.

But Nameless said they do, and I can't believe he'd make that up.....

I think that nameless means they talk to the ref respectfully and articulately, winning his respect and being seen to cooperate and subtly influencing his favour in that way. As oppossed to leaving him to it totally. Or as in football, arguing the toss and constantly trying to con / intimidate him.

Whrther nameless is right or not i don't really care. I just want to see reading respect the officials and have a decent dialogue with them. Whether its an advantage or disadvantage.

[JC]

Isn't the truth of the matter the fact that dissent could be stopped almost instantly if refs adopted a hardline policy of showing a yellow whenever it occured?

[melonhead]

not hardline enough

if they were given a gun and allowed to shoot the dissenters, the problem would disappear

[West Stand Man]

Isn't the truth of the matter the fact that dissent could be stopped almost instantly if refs adopted a hardline policy of showing a yellow whenever it occured?

Yes, so long as the authorities backed them up.

The more general point is a valid one too. Good referee management is a skill that rugby players learn early and most footballers appear to ignore. Harps was a master, he played the referees really well and it had a positive impact for us. Antagonising the ref is not often a good plan, getting him onside while robustly (politely) putting your case is.

[Ian Royal]

Isn't the truth of the matter the fact that dissent could be stopped almost instantly if refs adopted a hardline policy of showing a yellow whenever it occured?

Yes, so long as the authorities backed them up.

The more general point is a valid one too. Good referee management is a skill that rugby players learn early and most footballers appear to ignore. Harps was a master, he played the referees really well and it had a positive impact for us. Antagonising the ref is not often a good plan, getting him onside while robustly (politely) putting your case is.

I see the difference professionally all the time. And you don't get to be a professional ref by being a shrinking violet who'll get bullied easily.

Acting the twat and being aggressive harms your chances of a good outcome. Being polite but assertive with a sense of humour will take you a long way.