Oh thank goodness

for those badly needed three points. I am well pleased. What was the difference? Mainly that Ainley and Cooper turned up for the game. Super goal from Ainley for the first, what a shot. Brilliant set piece from Cooper for the 2nd. All credit to Dagnall for the 2 goals, made them look so easy. Know it was late in the game but excellent pass from Walker to set up the 3rd. He would still be my first choice in midfield.

But lets not get carried away, Crawley were absolutely awful. Lacked any discipline, and the crazy fouls they committed have to rank with the silliest I have seen for a long time.

All told an easy win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ruocul

But lets not get carried away, Crawley were absolutely awful.

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Not going to criticise you for your post.
On the contrary I salute you. You generate more traffic on this site than the rest of us combined.

However I have quoted the one piece where I do take issue, and you are not alone in saying this anyway.

I wasn't there on Saturday, but I didn't need to be to still pass comment.
The number of games we have lost this season, how many opposition fans would prefer to say we are poor than they were good? I suspect as many as Crewe fans are saying now about Crawley.

But surely that makes us poor too, doesn't it? ...........so no matter how poor Crawley were, it's all relative and means Saturday's result is to be celebrated for what we did, not what they didn't!
So yes, let's get carried away - why not?!!

Sorry, it just annoys me that's all ;)

We won easily in the end- so why did I leave the ground feeling dissatisfied? We'll, DA may call it game management but that last 15 mins was what I call fannying about. I'm all for keeping the ball but it is possible to do this AND go forward. We had them on the ropes and if we had attacked like we did at Blackburn, we might have done a lot to improve our goal difference. As it was, we had one meaningful attack in those 15 minutes and had no trouble scoring. However, when we played the ball backwards we put ourselves in trouble twice.
We need any goals where we can get them!

At 2-0 it was important to kill the game. One goal from Crawley and at 2-1 it might have given them hope. We have not been good this season holding on to leads so I was quite happy to keep playing the ball around and also enjoyed the 'oles' Long time since we did that

But there is more to holding the ball than passing sideways and backwards. Plus, as I pointed out, because we are not very good at holding on to the ball at the back, we actually put ourselves in danger of conceding on two occasions. If we had got the ball forward and held it up Crawley were very vulnerable to the chance of giving a free kick away.

The best form of defence is always attack!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paddockrefugee

The best form of defence is always attack!

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Like we did at Forest Green?
I think the tactics were justified by the third goal, working Crawley around the pitch

Exactly like FGR. Two of their goals were deflections, other than that we'd have won. Teams can't attack if you've got them defending against your own offensive play.

FGR also had 11 men on the pitch, against Crawley we had 2 spare men! We could leave those deeper to cover any counter-attack. However, we kept drawing our last man into the game and therefore increasing our vulnerability.

Ah well different opinions. FGR scored 2 deflections which means they had the ball not us. Yes attack is a good means of defence whilst you have the ball.
Crawley with 9 men still played 4 at the back and 3 in midfield so retaining possession at the back helped wind the clock down. I think we would all agree that 3 points were ***** and not the amount of goals scored. We were trying to work it through midfield whilst moving and tiring Crawley around hence the third goal.
It is no good pumping it upfield as the front two rarely retain possession unless at their feet.

Onwards and upwards on Saturday. Can we get a hat-trick of playing against 9 men?