Quote Originally Posted by SinceSept1959 View Post
Let's be honest if it wasn't for the brilliance of Alex Bass we would have lost by a far greater margin. Beaten 4 times but still worth 10/10 for me.
Anger and bewilderment at the mass substitutions had turned to disappointment at the end of the game. There's no doubt the players were gutted at the final whistle illustrated by the prone figures of Kellan Gordon and the superb George Abbott who gave his all.
We always discuss and guess the first change and all three of us said Austin to replace Hinchy who was in my opinion the weakest link.
The first change was the injured Scott being replaced by Martin , seen as a possible injection of pace upfront ?
Totally amazed to see Jatts and Macari withdrawn and Austin finding himself in the RB position , their No 7 ghosting past him 3 times in less than 3 minutes !
Yes, Notts needed fresh legs but the four changes all at once totally changed the game in favour of Posh. Whatever SM was thinking beggars belief !
No doubt he will state keeping players fresh for Walsall on Tuesday or more likely trying to settle for defending a 2-1 lead ?
A great ( third ) goal by GA made the scoreline more respectable.
Bedeau wasn't his usual self but was often overloaded without much support. Their midfielders seemed to have the better legs but Palmer finished the game strongly and Abbott was the epitome of perpetual motion.
Very disappointed with Martin and Brown who made little impact as subs.
Of course the inevitable happened with Platt coming off injured after five subs already used.
Attack is often the best form of defence , protecting a one goal lead rarely works and the game was effectively thrown away.
One of their stewards was hoping for some overtime and predicted Notts would equalise because "Posh can't defend."
Managers and coaches live or die by substitutions and tactical changes.
SM got it very badly wrong today kn both counts.
I agree completely about Bass. Not just the shot stopping but at least 2 memorable dives to cut out crosses that he held onto. Despite his kicking errors he was 10/10 all day long. What I don't understand about "Stuart Little" is this. I appreciate he felt he had to protect players for Tuesday and would agree that is most important. However, he cannot put square pegs in round holes and expect everything to be OK. Once he'd put Brown and Martin on I fully expected long balls to played into the corners for them to chase and turn Peterborough around. He didn't, what he did was expose Austin, who can be second last only to Scott in terms of pace, against a winger who'd comfortably beaten his man all afternoon. Brown and Martin were MIA partly because of the inability to gain any possession. The stupidity of the man to make 4 changes at one time really disrupted a midfield and defence that admittedly were struggling but at least had the pace of the game. It beggars belief and was a slap in the face for the 2000 Notts fans who'd backed the team so well all afternoon. This unnecessary and amateur approach was compounded when Platt had to go off and then the likes of Abbott and Palmer had to work even harder prior to Tuesday's game because we're down to 10 men. No thought to the potential of extra time when he's making 4 subs in one go. I'd add that overall he's doing OK, but I also believe this shows his limitations. There won't be any knee jerk reactions, even if we have a December like last season, but it's times like this that make me doubt his suitability to get us promoted. Hope he proves me wrong.