So, which is it – a minor blip or the first manifestation of a tiring squad that’s running out of gas? I reckon we’ll only know the answer to that one after Bolton, to be honest. A repeat of Wednesday night and I will be starting to worry.
Aw c’mon – we had to lose an away game eventually and if we have to surrender three points to anyone, I would rather it were Alex Neil’s Preston North End than certain other Championship clubs I could mention.
We were sluggish and it was not surprising that we were rather over-run early doors. A pinpoint freebie to the near post converted by Ben Davies and that’s the ghost of Lambert’s revenge: one down after two minutes.
Then Emi Buendia got caught out and brought down his man in the box (or was it actually Jamal Lewis’s man – hard to tell). Emi’s reaction said it all. He knew he’d stuffed up. Paul Gallagher did the rest from the spot. Tim Krul guessed correctly but to no avail as the pen was dispatched with a fair bit of power on it.
Penalties. I’m sick of the thought of them frankly. Daniel Farke said after the match that Marco Stiepermann had been excellent taking them in training but hit it at the perfect height for Declan Rudd to keep it out, which he duly did. I think we’ve converted one from six all season and this is surely an issue that must be addressed. Enough already.
Tetbull is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. I cannot wait for Mo Leitner’s imminent return and the unfortunate injury to Mario Vrancic is hardly helping us just now.
That being said, Trybull was hooked at half time and we’d already gone to three at the back, which involved Max Aarons switching from right to left and Lewis joining Christoph Zimmermann and Ben Godfrey as part of the triumvirate. We gave it a go and our possession count increased, but it was all to no real avail.
We had enough shots though – around 20 – and Rudd played a blinder.
There was an element of farce about Preston’s third when a 35-metre effort crashed off Tim Krul’s bar and fell to Sean Maguire inside the box. Whack. Game well and truly over.
We continued to create chances and marginally had the better of the second half. Timmu Pukki’s consolation was just that – a consolation.
So where do we go from here?
A short journey to the Macron of course.
I don’t really have a lot of time for folks who moan about the pampered lives of professional footballers. Disregarding the likes of Rooney, Balotelli or, say, Suarez, these guys are generally worthy of respect. However, they cannot function correctly unless the old petrol tank is full.
We had the physical and emotional baggage of Leeds and Ipswich to carry up to Deepdale, no Vrancic or Leitner and a day’s less rest than what seemed to me to be a very useful Preston side.
Back in the day me, Ady and Bob would occasionally play for our different league sides on a Sunday morning and then turn out on Hackney Marshes that same afternoon. But in our day and at our level we could – even though me and Ady were a bit static on the Marshes, although Bob coped pretty well.
But we were carthorses while modern professionals are thoroughbreds. Worlds apart.
I won’t launch into a rant about the fixture computer or the influence of Sky or BT Sport in switching kick-off times – and even matchdays – to suit themselves but this particular week we have been dealt a very poor hand indeed. Not because we lost at Preston but I’m sure readers will know what I’m getting at.
Now I’m no fan of Northern Soul but the one thing we must do from now on is to adopt their mantra: Keep the Faith.
It’s the least we can do for Farke & Co.
These guys have already provided us some great entertainment during an exhilarating season and one away defeat in 14 games is like the swallow and the summer.
Wins for the Wildermen and Leeds on Wednesday didn’t much help of course.
Whatever your mood was on Valentine’s morning (mine was pretty gloomy):
Keep the Faith.
A: injury’s?
Hi David
They’ve hardly helped have they? Vrancic, Thompson and Morris still out, with Klose and Leitner yet to return from lengthy lay-offs.
To be fair Farke’s normally reluctant to change a winning side but in this case a little rotation might be in order.
Martin, just about everyone was static on Hackney Marshes – either because of the mud or the booze on Saturday night!
I agree with just about all your points. We did look lethargic in the first half and our passing was awful, but there was a vast improvement in the second half, as evidenced by the match statistics. Farke’s tactical changes were interesting, despite having gone to three at the back, we were often left with just Zimmerman as the back line, as both Godfrey and Lewis pushed on as wing-backs.
We had to lose one eventually, and as you say, rather Preston than some of the others (one in particular!).
OTBC, onwards and upwards!
Hi Jim
Pressed the wrong key – my reply to your goodself appears “downstairs”!
I did think it a little odd that when going 3 at the back, he pushed a right back down the left wing. And I disagree Martin that we had marginally the better of the 2nd half. We ‘bloody murdered them’ as Bumble once said. The fact that Dec was MoM proves something surely. Despite a bad first half hour, I reckon we deserved a point.
Hi Dan
Yeah, looking back on it we probably did have a better second half than I suggested in the original article.
Declan did indeed make some fine saves. Of all people he would have been fired up for the encounter of course.
If Stiepermann had scored from the spot we might have got even more than a point!
Thank you.
I expect all NCFC fans are struggling to understand why we have converted one penalty out of six. I don’t remember Madison failing to score from one during his time in Yellow and Green (or whatever strip was the order of the day!!) – maybe persuade him to come back for a bit of coaching.
I have to agree that if we were going to lose, I’d FAR rather it was against PNE than in either of our previous two matches.
Over the next couple of weeks, WBA have to play Sheffield United at home and Leeds away, so the top 5 or 6 could look very different. We also have the small matter of trying to stop Bristol City who are on a very good run, so it won’t be easy.
Now that Vrancic is on the injured list, I’d love to see Leitner in the starting 11 for Bristol.
Finally – I’m delighted to see that Godfrey is now regularly in the starting 11, as I used to see him playing for the Under 23s and was impressed with him then. He occasionally played as a CB then.
Hi Ed
Very good point about Bristol City who are seemingly charging up the table.
As we all know penalties are about confidence almost as much as ability and you could tell from Stiepermann’s body language that he was a n-n-nervous boy.
From what I can gather there is no reason why Leitner shouldn’t be back for Bristol and I for one fervently hope that he is.
Thanks as ever.
Hi Martin
A good read as usual.
As someone said in Gary’s article, why not let Pukki take the pens. Yes, he missed one but he is also scoring lots of goals so his confidence you be up for it.
Not a Krul knocker but last night and for a few games now he hasn’t been very quick off his line, also he seems not to claim the high balls into the penalty area. Whether this is team instructions it leaves a lot for the 2 CB to do, not knowing if he is going to try for it.
Preston had a small turnout last night I would presume most of the Bolton squad was there to feast their eyes on city, lets hope that they were confused enough by the teams performance to be overconfident and, yes, you were right when I said we could grab 6 points for these 2 games and you said no way.
Gayle dived no doubt about it he will get possibly a 2 game ban. Now there is a debate about clubs that miss out on either automatic promotion or missing finishing in the top 6 to them by 1 point to WBA.
They say these things even out over a long season but few would agree when there are such fine margins involved would VAR resolve this or not.
Back to City, will we see Mclean, Hanley or any other fringe players give a run out against Bolton
OTBC
Hi Alex
We haven’t had a decent penalty specialist since Neil Adams.
There is obviously a reason Pukki doesn’t take them, but we can’t be sure what it is. There are some strikers who can’t hit a dead ball and he may well be one of them.
21 for the season thusfar will do for me though!
Mr Krul will be experiencing a high ball into the box at every opportunity tomorrow and that’s for sure.
Thanks as always.
Martin I hope he catches or Punch a few.
Krul doesn’t tend to venture out of his six-yard box too much.
That’s where Forster and then Angus were so able. And KK was the original in that respect. Seemingly no situation frightened him. Fond if faded memories from myself I guess!.
City have had sone good goalies over the years
Woods
Gunn Sr
K K
S Kenyon
Forster
Green
Gunn Jr
Possibly missed a couple
Why has Kenny Mac not featured more this week? Doesn’t Daniel trust him yet? OTBCp
Hi Brian
I ask myself the same question.
Although he’s already a year into his City contract I’ve only seen him play twice!
I understand that he had a lengthy spell out with injury and hasn’t had much game time since but like you I think he’s surely worth a try. Probably alongside Trybull?
Thank you.
You had to have played at the Marshes to comprehend the true horror of it!
Zimbo was indeed like the Lone Ranger on occasions when we pushed forward and no Tonto in sight.
As Tim Krul said about Bolton: “This is one we need to win now”. They’ll be horribly direct and I hope we revert to a flat back four, which I’m sure we will.
Thank you.
How we play at Bolton will be the litmus, I don’t expect to see the back line changed, (see below) it is the line where the problems lay, with the injuries lay which are causing the concern. Tets has not featured that much lately so as I would expect to be a little rusty, but he has always been given to giving the ball away cheaply in always seemingly a bad place. Perhaps a change could be Klose, or Hanley coming in and move Godfrey to defensive midfield, a place where he was use to playing.
Like most things we wait and see on Saturday, why shuld one defeat be the end of the challenge as I have seen talked about, beats me. Even if it is we will have the play offs to have a go at, as I cannot see us suddenly becoming that poor.
The second half beared this out, we mullered then, but they had an inspired Rudd with a point to prove to his old club, normally we expect it to be an ex scoring, but a keeper is different, believe there is a chance we could face another on saturday.
We’ll see how we go . Keep a troshing otbc
Hi Lad
Yeah I’m not surrendering to the lottery of the play-offs after what wasn’t an unexpected defeat either.
I would expect Remi to be in goal for them, but we won’t know for sure until 1400 tomorrow.
From memory the litmus went red for acid or blue for alkali – maybe we need ours to turn yellow and not white!
Thanks as usual.
Hello Martin, food for thought there. Also in the comments to follow. As usual there are many good ideas circulating should Farke decide to shuffle his pack.
The suggestion above that Tettey could be replaced in midfield by Godfrey, in turn deputised by Hanley is one that carries some merit. However, given Farkes assertion that Gpdfrey is a centre half probably pours cold water on that one. A shame, as I feel Godfrey could impose himself on Boltons midfield and add energy.
The form of others, notably Trybull and Stiepermann is a huge cause for concern. Both are suffering dips and in an ideal world would be rested, ready to return recharged for the run in. Stiepermann in particular appears to be garnering the wrong type of attention, principally for going to ground rather a lot lately.
McLean must be given a chance to show us what he can offer tomorrow. In his brief cameos thus far he has looked good, big and quick, adept at carrying the ball with a very nice delivery. He also excels in dead ball situations!
Cantwell may also come back into the reckoning, given his break from the action lately he will hopefully be re energised.
In an ideal,world we would make 4 changes to the starting,line up and challenge the replacements to send a message to Farke. An unchanged team sheet I fear will demoralise the fringe players and offer encouragement to Bolton.
Chris I often do lengthy replies as you will know by now.
But in this case I’ll swerve the privilege and just agree with everything you say.
Spot on.