Oh dear oh dear, completely different team to the one we played up in Yorkshire earlier in the season. Better organised and better prepared. I'm afraid I'm another to question changing the formation, it made us far too narrow and meant we kept lobbing long balls for the forwards to run onto. I said when we lost McLaughlin that he'd be a big miss, and knowing that we'd miss the width and the defensive work he used to do, I think I'd have rather seen O'Neill start today.
Sheffield started the game like a 100m sprinter straight out of the blocks and getting the defence under pressure very quickly. I don't see how you can blame Ted for that, or any of the other goals to be fair. Practically all he did all game was pick the ball out of the net - and deal with a terrible backpass from Woody.
However, Cox did well to get a response back in quite a short time. I thought Fortune was our best player overall, and was really surprised that he was taken off because Ranger probably had his worst game for us. Demetriou had a cut on his head quite early on and I did wonder if he had taken a bit of a knock that affected him because he was really not at his best either. We were up in the Centre Circle Lounge today, Christmas present for my dad, and Cokes and Oxley came round before kick off, Ben said he should be back next weekend. I think he may well walk straight back in because both backs had a bad game today.
Smith - 6.5, can't blame him, but he didn't have much to do either
Demetriou - 5, maybe time for White to be given another go
Thompson - 7, best of the defence today
Ferdinand - 6.5, not as composed as normal
Timlin - 6, not his best
Atkinson - 6, fairly non existent
Leonard - 6.5, he won't be happy with himself, but the game was played in the middle third for a lot of the time which meant the midfield had to work harder than normal and with no outlet wide
Wordsworth - 7, probably the best of the midfield, he did at least try to make things happen and had a good shot on target
Cox - 7.5, thought he had a good first half
Fortune - 8, my MOTM, held the ball up well, ran with it, played it with vision
Ranger - 5, not a good day at work
Subs:
McGlashan for Fortune - 7, looked interested when he came on and worked hard for his goal
Hines for Atkinson - not on long enough
Officials:
The ref seemed a bit overly fussy and to favour Sheffield more as the game went on, can't really comment on the linos as barely noticed them.
Some work to do on the training ground this week, we need to be back to winning ways next weekend. I didn't think Sheffield were the best we've seen at RH this season so far, but they'll definitely be up near the top come the end of the season.
Sheffield started the game like a 100m sprinter straight out of the blocks and getting the defence under pressure very quickly. I don't see how you can blame Ted for that, or any of the other goals to be fair. Practically all he did all game was pick the ball out of the net - and deal with a terrible backpass from Woody.
However, Cox did well to get a response back in quite a short time. I thought Fortune was our best player overall, and was really surprised that he was taken off because Ranger probably had his worst game for us. Demetriou had a cut on his head quite early on and I did wonder if he had taken a bit of a knock that affected him because he was really not at his best either. We were up in the Centre Circle Lounge today, Christmas present for my dad, and Cokes and Oxley came round before kick off, Ben said he should be back next weekend. I think he may well walk straight back in because both backs had a bad game today.
Smith - 6.5, can't blame him, but he didn't have much to do either
Demetriou - 5, maybe time for White to be given another go
Thompson - 7, best of the defence today
Ferdinand - 6.5, not as composed as normal
Timlin - 6, not his best
Atkinson - 6, fairly non existent
Leonard - 6.5, he won't be happy with himself, but the game was played in the middle third for a lot of the time which meant the midfield had to work harder than normal and with no outlet wide
Wordsworth - 7, probably the best of the midfield, he did at least try to make things happen and had a good shot on target
Cox - 7.5, thought he had a good first half
Fortune - 8, my MOTM, held the ball up well, ran with it, played it with vision
Ranger - 5, not a good day at work
Subs:
McGlashan for Fortune - 7, looked interested when he came on and worked hard for his goal
Hines for Atkinson - not on long enough
Officials:
The ref seemed a bit overly fussy and to favour Sheffield more as the game went on, can't really comment on the linos as barely noticed them.
Some work to do on the training ground this week, we need to be back to winning ways next weekend. I didn't think Sheffield were the best we've seen at RH this season so far, but they'll definitely be up near the top come the end of the season.