Player ratings v Stevanage

[1954blue]

Lack of fire power meant 2 points lost in a game we should have won but with such a young and inexperienced team we battled well against a very physical team.

Pickford 7 inclined to punch a couple I thought he might have caught but solid and reliable
Pearson 7 good solid performance and lucky to come away in one piece when Charles should have got a straight red
Brown 7 safety first but effective
Chimbonda 7 led the back line well before he had to go off
Chantler 8 grew in confidence as the game went on but a couple of loose passes put us under pressure
Amoo 4 clearly does not like the physical side of the game and should have been more of a threat. When he moved to the left beat his full back on the outside a couple of times but with no left foot he cut back again and lost great opportunities to put in dangerous crosses
Potts 6 some good bursts but not as involved as recent games
Berrett 5 mainly defensive duties and not as effective going forward
Redmond 8 our most effective and skil

[Bagshot_Blue]

1954blue we have very many points of agreement. Having seen all the recent games except Sheff Utd I would say that in general play, including defence, we have played as good as anybody - outside of the top 6-8 teams. However, as 1954 points out we have no cutting edge. We need someone (probably far more than just one) to catch fire and start banging in the goals or we will be in deep trouble.

Here are my ratings:
Pickford 6/10: Did nothing wrong, just a bit concerned as to his choice/timing of punches for crosses.
Chantler 8/10: Was caught a couple of times early on but was inspirational 2nd half. Always running breaking forward and moving the ball at pace from back to front.
Chimbonda 7/10: Another masterclass for our young centre backs. We missed his leadership when taken off injured and it took us 10-15 mins to regroup.
Pearson 6/10: Generally a good performance. He is a defender and that is a big positive. He worked hard to join the attack whenever possible.
Brown 8/10: I thought

[moorlad]

The tackle on Pearson was the worst challenge I have seen for years. It was a leg breaker, and how he was not sent off is absolutely beyond my understanding, definitely the worst refereeing decision of the season at Brunton Park.

That having been said, Amoo had the beating of Charles even before that challenge and he should have been used against him for the rest of the game, he wouldn't have been able to tackle him. However we foolishly hardly ever tried to isolate the pair of them.

Redmond was by far our most influential and creative player, and was very unlucky not to score first half. Pearson and Brown both played very well, Brown has the makings of a very good player in my view.

[griff]

An very good player

[Wukkie]

Brown&Pearson had much improved performances from their debuts.

Brown at Sheff Utd was guilty on at least four occasions of putting the team under pressure unnecessarily with poor choices of passing.

I liked the look of Brown&CMW partnership.

I thought Pearson grew as the game wore on.

Redmond for mee was our best player but he faded after HT when it looked like he stopped going forward like he was in the first half but maybe that was down to changes to the Stevenage set-up.
Having been the first time I've seen him play it looked to me that he'd have been more dangerous behind the striker.