The View From Churchmans

Somewhat retrospectively, but for what it’s worth, a few comments! Wonderful reception for Sir Bobby, fantastic atmosphere before the game in general. We were easily the better team (I think Newcastle had three goal attempts in 95 minutes) but it was one of those afternoons where we were determined to make it difficult for ourselves: Armstrong’s missed sitter springs to mind. But some encouraging points too. And a great game of football. Some ratings:
Wright 5: looked very hesitant on several occasions, nothing like the confidence he displayed against Liverpool.
Wilnis 7: back to his classiest, and quite happy in a back four, which was interesting; I had Fab down as the 3/5 at the back option, Chris Makin when we went four, but it’s not as cut and dried as that. Bizarrely moved to LEFT back for the second half, looked completely out of place, fell over a few times and promptly got injured. One of Burley’s more stupid tactical changes of the season.
McGreal 7: super performance, saved the day a couple of times, and looked comfortable throughout.
Hreidarsson 6: I think we all prefer HH as a left back where he can use his strength and speed bringing the ball forward without leaving a dangerous gap behind him, but of the dozen or more different combinations we’ve had in the centre at the back this season, this one worked as well as most.
Makin 6: again, composed and solid. Didn’t quite link up with Reuser in the first half as well as might have been hoped. Looked just as happy (if not more so) on the right in the second half.
Wright 6: better performance from Jermaininho, but it seems I’m not alone in thinking he’d rather have Jim’s playmaking central position. However…
Magilton 7: just when we were all starting to wonder if Jermaininho’s more attacking take on this position is preferable to Jim’s increasing defensiveness, ol’ bigmouth decides he’s going to be an attacking midfielder after all. He even got caught offside once (cue hundreds of supporters being carted out with shock). If he could have kept up the first half performance, might even have been MotM.
Holland 8: man of the match, I think. Usual Matty performance; perhaps not quite as positive as usual, but that’s because he was covering behind Jim so much. When Jim went off, had an almost impossible task holding the midfield with just Jermaininho for company, but just about pulled it off.
Reuser 6: achieved a lot, but was given an obscene amount of space and time to do it in, and might have done so much more. In a way, wasted in all that space (he’s no dribbler, and a couple of attempts to go past the last man were hopeless), but his crosses and through balls were generally as incisive as ever.
Armstrong 7: really committed performance, and was hugely impressive in the air. In fact I doubt if Scowie would have won more there, which may be why GB felt he could leave Scowie out. Never really sharp around the box, but seems to be growing in presence by the game. We only get two places for strikers, and at this level they both need to be class. I think Marcus has had six or seven strike partners this season, and none of them, in truth, have looked up to the job. I’ve never thought Armstrong was going to be either, but there are glimpses, just glimpses, that he may have it in him. I hope so.
Stewart 5: some intelligent running, sure, but never looked the part – again. Don’t think it’s a confidence thing, and of course when Marcus has a lean patch it’s going to look worse than most because of what we’ve come to expect, but terribly disappointing. Seemed to lack communication with the rest of the team.
Subs: Venus 6 (solid) Scowcroft 6 (not too involved) Clapham 6 (ditto).
Ref 5: ball + hand = handball, mate. Crowd 8: marvellous reception for Sir Bobby, and repeating it at the end was class (as was Sir Bobby’s delay on responding to the give-us-a-wave) Sir Bobby 10: God.