That was definitely a win worth celebrating. If the target is 50pts, then we need 11 from 12 and that squad now looks well capable of that.
I like Lapslie and my only worry when he came on was that he hasn't had game time after injury. Delighted for him, tunnel jump 'n all.
Thought Naby was excellent today. Looked like he was working hard on his decision -making. I hope we keep him, Bow clearly thinks he can help him get his head together to be a top player.
What else to say about Lyle? Well here's something. That's a player who thinks he deserves a pay rise; and look at him today, that's the way to go about earning it, right? I think if we make him an offer that is respectful, he'll take it, even if others offer more. Well, I hope so. He's a player that makes you believe we always have a chance, and such players don't come along so often at a club like ours
(edit, just seen the other thread to bring me down to earth.._
A word for the referee who I thought was the best we’ve seen this season. No wonder he’s been at the top level for 15 seasons.
Thought he missed a few obvious decisions. Booked Oshilaja when I don't think it was, let Oztumer off when it was. Average performance for me but at least he didn't look to be centre of attention.
Another six pointer and thankfully, given Millwall laying down and Barnsley winning we managed to rise to the occasion.
Made even better for me by @Len\'s_little_girl being in attendance with me to share the moment.
Luton, unlike Millwall at Wigan, certainly didn't come to lay down maybe they were motivated by the tribute to their fan in the 8th minute which, I'm proud to say, we honoured impeccably 'One Ethan Matthews' being a particularly nice touch, as they dominated the early exchanges Cornick being conspicuous. Bit of a prat but can play. I wondered where our midfield was as Luton had so much possession and pressure. Gradually we got a foothold with young Alfie showing some nifty footwork to put in a shot which their keeper tipped over smartly at the near post. Taylor showed his undoubted class somehow controlling a ball that was sideways on or even behind him before sliding a shot across the goalkeeper into the far corner to give us the lead.
Nerves were settled as we'd done Lee's bidding and got the first goal? Well they may have been but I blinked and missed it as the aforementioned Cornick equalised as Luton came straight back at us. 1-1 at halftime.
Second half attacking the Covered End has meant often a goal conceded by us a minute or two after the start of late. This time we attacked, a lovely sliderule pass to Green on the six yard line with the whole goal to aim at and he put it wide for a goal kick. I was convinced that would prove to be a match defining moment and not in a good way. Luton seemed to sense that too and pushed forward in waves once more. Bowyer reacted by memoving Oshilaja who seemed to be flagging with George Lapslie who we know gives everything and more to the cause. George ran around as he does making a nuisance of himself and the ship steadied. He later had a shot which hit the hand of a Luton defender with referee Marriner well placed to give the decision. We were being given a second chance! Lyle took the penalty with his walk up and it was 2-1. Still Luton wouldn't lay down and Phillips made an excellent save from a fierce shot heading for the top right hand corner of his goal (or perhaps that happened before Lyle's penalty my nerves were in shreds). We weathered the Luton storm and Bonne put a low cross over from the right with a couple of minutes left of normal time and the omnipresent Lapslie got on the end of it to slide it in and make it 3-1. This time nerves really were settled!
I was delighted for George after his horrible long inury lay off. The bloke may not be the most naturally talented man on our books but he bleeds for the cause and that sheer endeavour and guts goes a long way at this level.
Nearly forgot 'Florence Nightingale' Marriner inducing a miraculous recovery in a poleaxed Lockyer when he stroked him on the cheek. Made me laugh anyway.
Nosebleed time as we reach the giddy heights of 18th. No advance on Wigan but Huddersfield and Middlesbrough are now in the mix and we play both over the next fortnight. Avoid defeat in those and it starts to look better for us.
Credit to the lads. It wasn't pretty at times but we got the job done. More of the same and we'll be OK.
I thought we started a little nervey and neither team really had much of a foothold in the game. We grew into it a but but it seemed like they did too so was a bit odd. Both teams had chances without really looking like scoring. Our midfield was in the game without controlling it. There was a lot of individual errors on the ball, fluffed clearances, poorly weighted passes or players not seeing the run or making a different one to the pass. These kinds prevented us from getting hold of the game and often invited pressure back on us.
Cullen and Davis pushed much further up the pitch than in the last few games and it told. There was more space and it made the game more open gave them opportunities as well as us but was the right thing to do.
Oshilaja not brilliant in the ball but worked hard off it. Was good defensively and just has that instinct on when to drop into the back line and when to step up into midfield something Pearce doesnt have/ cant do.
Thought the Naby shit was in...
Lyle with some classic shithousery. I said that he would score as soon as they started giving him abuse and so it proved. Sublime touch and a brilliant finish. Give the man a new contract.
With the pen, Lyle will be Lyle, I love it but it puts the shits up me every time.
Absolutely horrendous defending for their equaliser. Genuinely shocking. Need to watch it back to work out what went wrong but from memory it looked liked Doughty followed his man into the centre then 2 players overlapped and no one followed either of them. By the time someone (Davis?) Got across to the first the second was already on his way into the box. Sarr had to go to him but that left a space in behind for their wanker number 14 with a noncey haircut to score under no pressure.
Oztumer class. Those perfectly weighted though balls he manages to just slip between their backline are brilliant. Opened them up on a number of occasions. Has to play every game for me.
Three really clearcut chances towards the beginning of the second half. Green shot that he somehow managed to miss. The Oztumer chance from a ball in when he got his body position all wrong, leaning too far back and skied it. And the Cullen chance that was blocked. We usually dont create many but put away the chances we do get. Was starting to believe this would be one of those days where we do the opposite. Crate loads but cant out any in the opinion bag.
Introduction of Lapslie pushed us on. He has pace, energy and urgency. Has a brilliant engine and today he proved that given the licence to get forward he can create chances and put them away. Always been a fan of his but was more impressed than I expected today. Think he might have another level in him that i didnt know was there. Top stuff. His movement was good. His defensive work was good. Decent shot for the penalty and beautifully taken goal. Loved the celebration! Conor who?
A word for the east stand ballboy. Seemed to be doing the whole stand on his own but had good game awareness and mugged off their players for throw ins multiple times. On one occasion he sprinted a good distance to reach the ball before a Luton player in order to slowly give it back to him. You love to see it.
Another six pointer and thankfully, given Millwall laying down and Barnsley winning we managed to rise to the occasion.
Made even better for me by @Len\'s_little_girl being in attendance with me to share the moment.
Luton, unlike Millwall at Wigan, certainly didn't come to lay down maybe they were motivated by the tribute to their fan in the 8th minute which, I'm proud to say, we honoured impeccably 'One Ethan Matthews' being a particularly nice touch, as they dominated the early exchanges Cornick being conspicuous. Bit of a prat but can play. I wondered where our midfield was as Luton had so much possession and pressure. Gradually we got a foothold with young Alfie showing some nifty footwork to put in a shot which their keeper tipped over smartly at the near post. Taylor showed his undoubted class somehow controlling a ball that was sideways on or even behind him before sliding a shot across the goalkeeper into the far corner to give us the lead.
Nerves were settled as we'd done Lee's bidding and got the first goal? Well they may have been but I blinked and missed it as the aforementioned Cornick equalised as Luton came straight back at us. 1-1 at halftime.
Second half attacking the Covered End has meant often a goal conceded by us a minute or two after the start of late. This time we attacked, a lovely sliderule pass to Green on the six yard line with the whole goal to aim at and he put it wide for a goal kick. I was convinced that would prove to be a match defining moment and not in a good way. Luton seemed to sense that too and pushed forward in waves once more. Bowyer reacted by memoving Oshilaja who seemed to be flagging with George Lapslie who we know gives everything and more to the cause. George ran around as he does making a nuisance of himself and the ship steadied. He later had a shot which hit the hand of a Luton defender with referee Marriner well placed to give the decision. We were being given a second chance! Lyle took the penalty with his walk up and it was 2-1. Still Luton wouldn't lay down and Phillips made an excellent save from a fierce shot heading for the top right hand corner of his goal (or perhaps that happened before Lyle's penalty my nerves were in shreds). We weathered the Luton storm and Lyle put a low cross over from the right with a couple of minutes left of normal time and the omnipresent Lapslie got on the end of it to slide it in and make it 3-1. This time nerves really were settled!
I was delighted for George after his horrible long inury lay off. The bloke may not be the most naturally talented man on our books but he bleeds for the cause and that sheer endeavour and guts goes a long way at this level.
Nearly forgot 'Florence Nightingale' Marriner inducing a miraculous recovery in a poleaxed Lockyer when he stroked him on the cheek. Made me laugh anyway.
Nosebleed time as we reach the giddy heights of 18th. No advance on Wigan but Huddersfield and Middlesbrough are now in the mix and we play both over the next fortnight. Avoid defeat in those and it starts to look better for us.
Credit to the lads. It wasn't pretty at times but we got the job done. More of the same and we'll be OK.
COYR!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was a little surprised this didnt happen today and could understand why its been happening all too often
We started the half really quickly and got a throw in quite early - The slowness of our players to understand what had happened was baffling
I know you get occasions where they dont rush to take them to run down a bit of time etc. but on that occasion they really didnt look with it yet
5) Lapslie goal: brilliant pass and move from Lapslie. The lad not only played a key role in the build up, but after finding Bonne - he kept moving into the 6 yard box, anticipating the pass from Bonne. And his run and momentum ensured he was first to the ball. Bowyer will be so pleased with that.
It’s such a simple skill that too many players, strikers and midfielders, don’t have coached into them. A lot of players in Lapslie’s position would’ve given the ball to Bonne and stopped. By simply keeping on moving Lapslie bagged himself a tap in.
Performance absolutely backs up what Lee said in his pre match presser. It's less about the formation put out and more about the intent. Today the 2 CMs were more aggressive the fullback got forward more we pressed harder and we wanted it more.
Keep it up for the rest of the season please boys.
Proactive subs with attacking intent helped too. Felt like the pre injury crisis confident Lee Bowyer.
Really enjoyed today even if we didn’t play quite as well as the score line suggests. LT was a class above all game - felt like he was auditioning for that armband and boy did he show up. My small criticism of today and the past few games has been that we seem to allow teams so much space outside our box, not tracking runners and allowing ourselves to get overloaded 3 on 2. A better side would have scored a few more against us today. Enough of a moan - what a bloody 3 points that is.
I thought we started a little nervey and neither team really had much of a foothold in the game. We grew into it a but but it seemed like they did too so was a bit odd. Both teams had chances without really looking like scoring. Our midfield was in the game without controlling it. There was a lot of individual errors on the ball, fluffed clearances, poorly weighted passes or players not seeing the run or making a different one to the pass. These kinds prevented us from getting hold of the game and often invited pressure back on us.
Cullen and Davis pushed much further up the pitch than in the last few games and it told. There was more space and it made the game more open gave them opportunities as well as us but was the right thing to do.
Oshilaja not brilliant in the ball but worked hard off it. Was good defensively and just has that instinct on when to drop into the back line and when to step up into midfield something Pearce doesnt have/ cant do.
Thought the Naby shit was in...
Lyle with some classic shithousery. I said that he would score as soon as they started giving him abuse and so it proved. Sublime touch and a brilliant finish. Give the man a new contract.
With the pen, Lyle will be Lyle, I love it but it puts the shits up me every time.
Absolutely horrendous defending for their equaliser. Genuinely shocking. Need to watch it back to work out what went wrong but from memory it looked liked Doughty followed his man into the centre then 2 players overlapped and no one followed either of them. By the time someone (Davis?) Got across to the first the second was already on his way into the box. Sarr had to go to him but that left a space in behind for their wanker number 14 with a noncey haircut to score under no pressure.
Oztumer class. Those perfectly weighted though balls he manages to just slip between their backline are brilliant. Opened them up on a number of occasions. Has to play every game for me.
Three really clearcut chances towards the beginning of the second half. Green shot that he somehow managed to miss. The Oztumer chance from a ball in when he got his body position all wrong, leaning too far back and skied it. And the Cullen chance that was blocked. We usually dont create many but put away the chances we do get. Was starting to believe this would be one of those days where we do the opposite. Crate loads but cant out any in the opinion bag.
Introduction of Lapslie pushed us on. He has pace, energy and urgency. Has a brilliant engine and today he proved that given the licence to get forward he can create chances and put them away. Always been a fan of his but was more impressed than I expected today. Think he might have another level in him that i didnt know was there. Top stuff. His movement was good. His defensive work was good. Decent shot for the penalty and beautifully taken goal. Loved the celebration! Conor who?
A word for the east stand ballboy. Seemed to be doing the whole stand on his own but had good game awareness and mugged off their players for throw ins multiple times. On one occasion he sprinted a good distance to reach the ball before a Luton player in order to slowly give it back to him. You love to see it.
Atmosphere was very good.
The atmosphere is better without the £5'ers. The Covered end is getting a nice bit of hostility about it.
That was shocking play by Collins I think to give away the penalty, but a decent shot by George. I'm sure I've read here that Bowyer discourages long shots, as we don't seem to shot from distance that often?
1) Superb ball from Ozzy to pick out Naby, who was so unlucky to brilliantly take it down and thunder his shot against the bar.
2) Lyle's 1st goal ...... thought I was watching Clive Mendonca there. Just what Super Clive used to do.
3) Luton goal ...... ouch, what sh*t defending. Acre's of space for a free run to the byleline, before Davis' showed what he'd learned at the Naby Sarr School of weak nothing clearances.
4) Green's chance: Ozzy again, collects the ball in his own half, advances - and then threads a killer pass to find Lyle lurking on the left wing. Quality, Ozzy. Quality.
5) Lapslie goal: brilliant pass and move from Lapslie. The lad not only played a key role in the build up, but after finding Bonne - he kept moving into the 6 yard box, anticipating the pass from Bonne. And his run and momentum ensured he was first to the ball. Bowyer will be so pleased with that.
Nice pass by Davis for Lyle's first goal, which partially makes up for his defensive error
Surprised the highlights don't show the disallowed Luton goal, that was a key moment in the match, as if we had gone 2-1 down, I think we would have struggled against a defensive Luton
Both Naby's shot and the penalty came from strange short corners, it was something we did a lot of today
With Davis, yes he should get the credit for a well weighted chip to set up Taylor. Assist to Davis. After all, if people are quick to criticise, they should also give credit where credit is due.
We're not generally the biggest of sides and can lack aerial threat attacking set pieces. The "strange short corners" ..... often they were worked to the player just outside the box, the player who had space without being marked.
Not only does that give that player a chance of a shot on goal (as we saw with the build up to the penalty) but enables that player in space to pick a pass into the box (as we saw with Ozzy's pinpoint ball to Naby) ...... and Bowyer wants to see us passing into the box, creating difficult to defend goalscoring opportunities.
Even for our 3rd goal, watch how we set up from Matthew's throw ...... this time, it's Cullen unmarked in acres of space on the edge of the D. Okay, this time it didn't directly affect play - but Cullen was there, in position ready to be found or to pick up a loose clearance, or close down and challenge on the turnover. And again, Bowyer's preferred passing game inside the box ripped apart the Luton defence, resulting in Lapslie converting a chance he couldn't miss.
Training ground routines being put into practice in actual matches.
I thought we started a little nervey and neither team really had much of a foothold in the game. We grew into it a but but it seemed like they did too so was a bit odd. Both teams had chances without really looking like scoring. Our midfield was in the game without controlling it. There was a lot of individual errors on the ball, fluffed clearances, poorly weighted passes or players not seeing the run or making a different one to the pass. These kinds prevented us from getting hold of the game and often invited pressure back on us.
Cullen and Davis pushed much further up the pitch than in the last few games and it told. There was more space and it made the game more open gave them opportunities as well as us but was the right thing to do.
Oshilaja not brilliant in the ball but worked hard off it. Was good defensively and just has that instinct on when to drop into the back line and when to step up into midfield something Pearce doesnt have/ cant do.
Thought the Naby shit was in...
Lyle with some classic shithousery. I said that he would score as soon as they started giving him abuse and so it proved. Sublime touch and a brilliant finish. Give the man a new contract.
With the pen, Lyle will be Lyle, I love it but it puts the shits up me every time.
Absolutely horrendous defending for their equaliser. Genuinely shocking. Need to watch it back to work out what went wrong but from memory it looked liked Doughty followed his man into the centre then 2 players overlapped and no one followed either of them. By the time someone (Davis?) Got across to the first the second was already on his way into the box. Sarr had to go to him but that left a space in behind for their wanker number 14 with a noncey haircut to score under no pressure.
Oztumer class. Those perfectly weighted though balls he manages to just slip between their backline are brilliant. Opened them up on a number of occasions. Has to play every game for me.
Three really clearcut chances towards the beginning of the second half. Green shot that he somehow managed to miss. The Oztumer chance from a ball in when he got his body position all wrong, leaning too far back and skied it. And the Cullen chance that was blocked. We usually dont create many but put away the chances we do get. Was starting to believe this would be one of those days where we do the opposite. Crate loads but cant out any in the opinion bag.
Introduction of Lapslie pushed us on. He has pace, energy and urgency. Has a brilliant engine and today he proved that given the licence to get forward he can create chances and put them away. Always been a fan of his but was more impressed than I expected today. Think he might have another level in him that i didnt know was there. Top stuff. His movement was good. His defensive work was good. Decent shot for the penalty and beautifully taken goal. Loved the celebration! Conor who?
A word for the east stand ballboy. Seemed to be doing the whole stand on his own but had good game awareness and mugged off their players for throw ins multiple times. On one occasion he sprinted a good distance to reach the ball before a Luton player in order to slowly give it back to him. You love to see it.
Atmosphere was very good.
The atmosphere is better without the £5'ers. The Covered end is getting a nice bit of hostility about it.
They are much better off pricing the season tickets to sell well, than do 1off gimmick games.
1) Superb ball from Ozzy to pick out Naby, who was so unlucky to brilliantly take it down and thunder his shot against the bar.
2) Lyle's 1st goal ...... thought I was watching Clive Mendonca there. Just what Super Clive used to do.
3) Luton goal ...... ouch, what sh*t defending. Acre's of space for a free run to the byleline, before Davis' showed what he'd learned at the Naby Sarr School of weak nothing clearances.
4) Green's chance: Ozzy again, collects the ball in his own half, advances - and then threads a killer pass to find Lyle lurking on the left wing. Quality, Ozzy. Quality.
5) Lapslie goal: brilliant pass and move from Lapslie. The lad not only played a key role in the build up, but after finding Bonne - he kept moving into the 6 yard box, anticipating the pass from Bonne. And his run and momentum ensured he was first to the ball. Bowyer will be so pleased with that.
Nice pass by Davis for Lyle's first goal, which partially makes up for his defensive error
Surprised the highlights don't show the disallowed Luton goal, that was a key moment in the match, as if we had gone 2-1 down, I think we would have struggled against a defensive Luton
Both Naby's shot and the penalty came from strange short corners, it was something we did a lot of today
With Davis, yes he should get the credit for a well weighted chip to set up Taylor. Assist to Davis. After all, if people are quick to criticise, they should also give credit where credit is due.
We're not generally the biggest of sides and can lack aerial threat attacking set pieces. The "strange short corners" ..... often they were worked to the player just outside the box, the player who had space without being marked.
Not only does that give that player a chance of a shot on goal (as we saw with the build up to the penalty) but enables that player in space to pick a pass into the box (as we saw with Ozzy's pinpoint ball to Naby) ...... and Bowyer wants to see us passing into the box, creating difficult to defend goalscoring opportunities.
Even for our 3rd goal, watch how we set up from Matthew's throw ...... this time, it's Cullen unmarked in acres of space on the edge of the D. Okay, this time it didn't directly affect play - but Cullen was there, in position ready to be found or to pick up a loose clearance, or close down and challenge on the turnover. And again, Bowyer's preferred passing game inside the box ripped apart the Luton defence, resulting in Lapslie converting a chance he couldn't miss.
Training ground routines being put into practice in actual matches.
To be fair I'm pretty sure the Naby shot didn't come directly from the short corner, but rather from the next phase of the attack. Indeed we made such a mess of the initial corner routine that everyone was all over the place, including Naby's marker!
Without Bonne, Pearce AND Pratley our starting lineup did lack a bit of height, as Davis is a fair bit shorter than Pratley
After the luton fans giving it Large at london bridge I realy expected them to be loud but were drowned out by the charlton faithful Great win boys The valley is realy starting to rock these days
Agree completely about Bonne. Thought when he was thrown into the deep end he looked out his depth to begin with. However, he’s grown as a pro very quickly and I think he has an exciting future. If anything, I think he needs to believe in himself a bit more.
Some very silly marks for Oshilaja emerging in the marks thread.
He was there to do a job in the face of a serious head wind and gave us great physicality there, just what we needed with the ball bouncing all over the place and in the air.
I agree. I thought he played alright. People fail to see what he brings. I thought he played better today than both Sarr and Lockyer who I thought had weak games as central defenders.
After the luton fans giving it Large at london bridge I realy expected them to be loud but were drowned out by the charlton faithful Great win boys The valley is realy starting to rock these days
Incredible number of police on Floyd Road today, were they expecting trouble?
To those saying great shot, I thought it was going in to row Z , it was on its way up as it struck the player and to me didn’t look like threatening the goal but the result of said shot was perfect , what was that defender thinking !!
Amazing win and thoroughly deserved. Gives us a tiny bit of breathing space. Still a lot of work to do but the players responded magnificently. Fans were incredible second half when the boys needed you most. #COYR#cafc
#FVH2020 event after the game. So many people doing so much for inclusivity and diversity. It’s what our club is about and we should all take pride in it
Comments
I like Lapslie and my only worry when he came on was that he hasn't had game time after injury. Delighted for him, tunnel jump 'n all.
Thought Naby was excellent today. Looked like he was working hard on his decision -making. I hope we keep him, Bow clearly thinks he can help him get his head together to be a top player.
What else to say about Lyle? Well here's something. That's a player who thinks he deserves a pay rise; and look at him today, that's the way to go about earning it, right? I think if we make him an offer that is respectful, he'll take it, even if others offer more. Well, I hope so. He's a player that makes you believe we always have a chance, and such players don't come along so often at a club like ours
(edit, just seen the other thread to bring me down to earth.._
Another six pointer and thankfully, given Millwall laying down and Barnsley winning we managed to rise to the occasion.
Made even better for me by @Len\'s_little_girl being in attendance with me to share the moment.
Luton, unlike Millwall at Wigan, certainly didn't come to lay down maybe they were motivated by the tribute to their fan in the 8th minute which, I'm proud to say, we honoured impeccably 'One Ethan Matthews' being a particularly nice touch, as they dominated the early exchanges Cornick being conspicuous. Bit of a prat but can play. I wondered where our midfield was as Luton had so much possession and pressure. Gradually we got a foothold with young Alfie showing some nifty footwork to put in a shot which their keeper tipped over smartly at the near post. Taylor showed his undoubted class somehow controlling a ball that was sideways on or even behind him before sliding a shot across the goalkeeper into the far corner to give us the lead.
Nerves were settled as we'd done Lee's bidding and got the first goal? Well they may have been but I blinked and missed it as the aforementioned Cornick equalised as Luton came straight back at us. 1-1 at halftime.
Second half attacking the Covered End has meant often a goal conceded by us a minute or two after the start of late. This time we attacked, a lovely sliderule pass to Green on the six yard line with the whole goal to aim at and he put it wide for a goal kick. I was convinced that would prove to be a match defining moment and not in a good way. Luton seemed to sense that too and pushed forward in waves once more. Bowyer reacted by memoving Oshilaja who seemed to be flagging with George Lapslie who we know gives everything and more to the cause. George ran around as he does making a nuisance of himself and the ship steadied. He later had a shot which hit the hand of a Luton defender with referee Marriner well placed to give the decision. We were being given a second chance! Lyle took the penalty with his walk up and it was 2-1. Still Luton wouldn't lay down and Phillips made an excellent save from a fierce shot heading for the top right hand corner of his goal (or perhaps that happened before Lyle's penalty my nerves were in shreds). We weathered the Luton storm and Bonne put a low cross over from the right with a couple of minutes left of normal time and the omnipresent Lapslie got on the end of it to slide it in and make it 3-1. This time nerves really were settled!
I was delighted for George after his horrible long inury lay off. The bloke may not be the most naturally talented man on our books but he bleeds for the cause and that sheer endeavour and guts goes a long way at this level.
Nearly forgot 'Florence Nightingale' Marriner inducing a miraculous recovery in a poleaxed Lockyer when he stroked him on the cheek. Made me laugh anyway.
Nosebleed time as we reach the giddy heights of 18th. No advance on Wigan but Huddersfield and Middlesbrough are now in the mix and we play both over the next fortnight. Avoid defeat in those and it starts to look better for us.
Credit to the lads. It wasn't pretty at times but we got the job done. More of the same and we'll be OK.
COYR!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no voice left.
I thought we started a little nervey and neither team really had much of a foothold in the game. We grew into it a but but it seemed like they did too so was a bit odd. Both teams had chances without really looking like scoring. Our midfield was in the game without controlling it. There was a lot of individual errors on the ball, fluffed clearances, poorly weighted passes or players not seeing the run or making a different one to the pass. These kinds prevented us from getting hold of the game and often invited pressure back on us.
Cullen and Davis pushed much further up the pitch than in the last few games and it told. There was more space and it made the game more open gave them opportunities as well as us but was the right thing to do.
Oshilaja not brilliant in the ball but worked hard off it. Was good defensively and just has that instinct on when to drop into the back line and when to step up into midfield something Pearce doesnt have/ cant do.
Thought the Naby shit was in...
Lyle with some classic shithousery. I said that he would score as soon as they started giving him abuse and so it proved. Sublime touch and a brilliant finish. Give the man a new contract.
With the pen, Lyle will be Lyle, I love it but it puts the shits up me every time.
Absolutely horrendous defending for their equaliser. Genuinely shocking. Need to watch it back to work out what went wrong but from memory it looked liked Doughty followed his man into the centre then 2 players overlapped and no one followed either of them. By the time someone (Davis?) Got across to the first the second was already on his way into the box. Sarr had to go to him but that left a space in behind for their wanker number 14 with a noncey haircut to score under no pressure.
Oztumer class. Those perfectly weighted though balls he manages to just slip between their backline are brilliant. Opened them up on a number of occasions. Has to play every game for me.
Three really clearcut chances towards the beginning of the second half. Green shot that he somehow managed to miss. The Oztumer chance from a ball in when he got his body position all wrong, leaning too far back and skied it. And the Cullen chance that was blocked. We usually dont create many but put away the chances we do get. Was starting to believe this would be one of those days where we do the opposite. Crate loads but cant out any in the opinion bag.
Introduction of Lapslie pushed us on. He has pace, energy and urgency. Has a brilliant engine and today he proved that given the licence to get forward he can create chances and put them away. Always been a fan of his but was more impressed than I expected today. Think he might have another level in him that i didnt know was there. Top stuff. His movement was good. His defensive work was good. Decent shot for the penalty and beautifully taken goal. Loved the celebration! Conor who?
A word for the east stand ballboy. Seemed to be doing the whole stand on his own but had good game awareness and mugged off their players for throw ins multiple times. On one occasion he sprinted a good distance to reach the ball before a Luton player in order to slowly give it back to him. You love to see it.
Atmosphere was very good.
We started the half really quickly and got a throw in quite early - The slowness of our players to understand what had happened was baffling
I know you get occasions where they dont rush to take them to run down a bit of time etc. but on that occasion they really didnt look with it yet
Keep it up for the rest of the season please boys.
Proactive subs with attacking intent helped too. Felt like the pre injury crisis confident Lee Bowyer.
We're not generally the biggest of sides and can lack aerial threat attacking set pieces. The "strange short corners" ..... often they were worked to the player just outside the box, the player who had space without being marked.
Not only does that give that player a chance of a shot on goal (as we saw with the build up to the penalty) but enables that player in space to pick a pass into the box (as we saw with Ozzy's pinpoint ball to Naby) ...... and Bowyer wants to see us passing into the box, creating difficult to defend goalscoring opportunities.
Even for our 3rd goal, watch how we set up from Matthew's throw ...... this time, it's Cullen unmarked in acres of space on the edge of the D.
Okay, this time it didn't directly affect play - but Cullen was there, in position ready to be found or to pick up a loose clearance, or close down and challenge on the turnover. And again, Bowyer's preferred passing game inside the box ripped apart the Luton defence, resulting in Lapslie converting a chance he couldn't miss.
Training ground routines being put into practice in actual matches.
Without Bonne, Pearce AND Pratley our starting lineup did lack a bit of height, as Davis is a fair bit shorter than Pratley
Great win boys
The valley is realy starting to rock these days
#ontothenextone #cafc #team https://instagram.com/p/B84Z_R1hXpx/?igshid=w9pu4b10cnpf