Dan kindly volunteered to put together the report for last night’s match, as he made the journey to Old Trafford for what proved to be a controversial night. He reports:
For 25 long minutes at Old Trafford it appeared that our, somewhat divisive, manager might be in the process of pulling off quite a coup. A leftfield, unexpected starting line-up, announced to a shock media shortly before kick-off had commentators tearing up their research notes – and possibly those of Sir Alex Ferguson and his team too. Could Mick McCarthy have outwitted the Uber Lord King of the Mind Games?
Matt Hill - One of Ten changes from Mick McCarthy
Don’t get me wrong. Within those 20-odd minutes with the scores still standing level, United never really had too much to worry about from a Wolves team with the whole 10 outfield players rotated from White Hart Line. But then United didn’t look particularly worried about anything in general, which was surprising considering the 0-1 defeat to Villa at the weekend.
Wolves lined up with Hahneman keeping his place, and a back four of Elokobi and Mancienne in the middle, Zubar on the right and Matty Hill on the left. They were protected in the centre of midfield by Castillo and Foley, with Surman at times slightly more advanced. Halford and Friend, recalled from loan at the weekend (his name wasn’t even on the programme squad list), operated the wings, with the Hoff upfront.
A curious tempo to the game ensued. Whilst United had changes in their side, a team featuring Vidic, Rooney, Berbatov and Scholes should really have mauled us. We were opened up a couple of times, with Hahneman being called on to competently save from Rooney at short range and balls in to the box not always cleanly dealt. We even managed to carve a couple of chances ourselves – a Halford long throw eventually fell to George Friend who fired over when he should have kept his head down – but there was little outlet for us to use to relieve what pressure we needed to soak.
Our best football was played in the middle by Foley, Surman and Castillo who neatly at times knocked the ball around at close quarters – Foley in particular caught the eye, enjoying the opportunity of a more central role. But without an industrious Dave Edwards, spirited front line or cultured left peg of Milijas, we were never really able to work our way up to the final third with conviction.
Up front, Maierhoffer lolled around, pointed a lot, shrugged and got involved in some daft muscle flexing with Vidic. I recognise he’s a target man and thrives of service – but there were plenty of balls put his way and he didn’t get on the end of them to bring other people in and kept too far away from the action. He’s certainly a character – but not one that fits with the Wolves ethos of teamwork and unrelenting hardwork at the moment.
A Zubar handball bought about a well taken Rooney penalty to break the deadlock, which arrived as a few United fans were growing a touch restless at their lacklustre gazillionairres and it was always going to be a big ask to come back after Vidic powerfully headed from a corner just before half time.
Iwelumo, Jarvis and Dave Jones were bought on in the second half but couldn’t make the required impact to create a good enough response. It was good to see Jones back, who bought with him some more varied, reaching passes that managed to find Jarvis later on in the game out on the left, but an ongoing lack of guile and strength from the winger prevented him from putting in any telling balls when he got to the touchline.
Pure, unadulterated yet mercurial class from Berbatov allowed substitute Valencia to score in the box after an hour as United strolled their way to the final whistle.
The real talking point here of course is McCarthy’s selection. What’s to be learned from it? Well, for me the positives were the two centre backs who played efficiently and as a unit. Mancienne in particular looked like he relished the Old Trafford floodlights, tackling and carrying the ball to try to spark something. I’ve already mentioned the middle three, but I thought Matt Hill worked hard too. Elokobi looked more focused and confident, though his distribution made for a couple of nervy moments.
All the players deserve credit though. It must have been a tough ask to play together for the first time like that, with the prospect of a potential thrashing given the gulf in class. The fans stuck with the team which was good too considering the controversial selection. Whilst the media has latched on to some of the “We want our money back” chants, being in the United end (my Dad and I sat amongst Scandinavians) it was tricky to hear if there was anger or irony in their voices.
So – bring on the debate. The question I’ve been asking myself is: Should we be happy to take three points from the last two games? I’ve been saying, emphatically, ‘yes’. But as the traffic jams grew longer and on the M6 heading back and news of Brum in sixth blasted out from 5Live, ‘four’ started to sound much better.
First off Dan, thanks a lot for doing the report. It’s great to read the thoughts of someone who was actually there, particularly on such a strange evening.
Like you say, the only real major talking point is McCarthy’s team selection.
I’d like to start off by offering my sympathies to any fans who paid the excessive premium and travelled up there, only to find we were playing our second-string. They deserve much, much, much better than that.
If it makes any of you feel slightly better, I went to Chelsea and our so-called best eleven were blown away in under 20 minutes, so at least it remained competitive a little longer last night. No consolation I realise.
Resting three or four players would have been understandable and I doubt anyone would have grumbled too much. But to change the whole side was always going to create hysteria and our manager must of known that.
I’m certainly not going to defend Mick on this issue because I think he got it wrong. That being said, people saying ‘Mick Out’ are taking things quite a few steps too far. You’re of course entitled to your opinion, but sacking him, for me, would be completely the wrong decision.
What’s certain is that the pressure to beat Burnley has now been ratcheted up a few more notches and anything other than 3 points, could see things turn sour again, which is a shame considering our progress in the last fortnight.
I just hope we haven’t witnessed our ‘Phil Brown teamtalk on the pitch’ moment and look back at the end of the season, at a big decision that our manager got completely wrong, with disastrous consequences.
Roll on Sunday. Up The Wolves.
Presure on MM to bring a result on Sunday is emmense now. I don’t think even resting a couple in my opinion was the wright decision. Back to back wins for the first time in the PL, a settled, ballanced team briming full of confidence should have been taking the to the pitch last night.
I know it was Man U but for the first time since opening day, there was a real sense of optimism around the club and MM has completely undermind the hard work of the last two weeks.
Ed said it on the other thread, MM sent out a message that it is OK to roll over and plan to loose certain games. It goes against every competitve bone in my body.
Anything less than 3pts Sunday and even die hard MM fans will be thinking twice. The man went down a lot in my estimations (he wasn’t to high up in them before) last night and I think the majority of the football world think the same.
He will be jugded come the end of the season, but another couple of ludicrus, low down, dispicable stunts like last night and he might not make it to the end of the season!!!
Unfortunately i have to agree. After the highs of Saturday we have all been brought back to earth with a bump because of that selection. The loss is nothing too unexpected but the manner is disappointing. if we dont get 3 points on sunday it will be very hard to justify.
obviously mick knows the squad and fitness levels but putting a whole knew squad together for the champions is not a positive attitude in my opinion.
I like Mick and think he does a good job overall but things like this just alienate people very quickly
Tom, I hadn’t thought of it like that until you said it but describing it as our ‘Phil Brown teamtalk on the pitch’ moment might be spot on. It could end up either hightening the pressure on us (and have the opposite effect to what he was trying to achieve by protecting the 1st team players confidence) or be a masterstroke!!!
My other issue I have with the psychological effect to add to what i posted on the other thread, is that Mick has effectively said, this is my 1st team and this is my reserves!! How does that go towards building a unit. All the players who played last night will be dropped again come sunday, for what they have effectively been told is the “important” game which we want to play our best players in and sorry you guys aren’t good enough
You know who I feel sorry for? Hennessy.
He changed the whole outfield, why not give our young goalie a start at Old Trafford too.
Have you seen the media coverage……MM is beeing slated in every coner of the media you look.
I don’t know about “Phil Brown” moment either, after his team talk on the pitch they hardly won a game and only stayed up thanks to the performances and results before he did that.
This has left a bad taste in the mouths of many people and even 3pts on Sunday won’t totaly absolve MM.
It was so disrespecfult to the players, to the fans, to the club and to the rest of the PL
Totally agree with EmeraldPete. I sat in a pub with a lot of Manuresupporters, and suprisingly not, they mocked both our team and our manager. “Knew we were chanceless”, “cowards”, “thanks for the threepointer”. I was pissed. Rolling over and die, like you say, is the last thing I want my team to do. “This was my best 11 at the moment” – I don’t buy it, not even close. The pressure is enormous now, and I don’t think he succeed in protecting the 1st team players’ confidence, rather the opposite.
But, of course, I hope I am totally wrong.
You know what winning resources as i was watching the game last night i was wondering how i could enhance my seo techniques. Good post mate. Nice and relevant!!!!!!
I have read his Web 2 Mayhem Review and there is not one mention of the Wolves in it!!!
I’m starting to think he is not a real Wolves fan!!!!
I turned on the radio last night to hear we’d made ten changes to Saturday’s line up. “Bloody hell,” I thought “We’ve not given ourselves a chance here.” It was all they could talk about on Five Live; then I heard the team and thought “oh, that’s not too bad, possibly not the strongest side but it’s not all kids.” All the talk this morning is probably only because it’s a quiet news day for football. Tony Evans has a three quarter page comment piece in The Times calling McCarthy the football villain of the year – yes Tony, anything to take the spotlight away from your beloved Liverpool’s failings, hey?
I see Mick’s point, I understand his thinking, but he was wrong. When we played at Old Trafford in 2003 we lost, but we impressed everyone watching and it surely gave the players a boost. Why didn’t we do that last night?
He was wrong, we MUST win, and win well on Sunday, or people who want him out (and who in?) will have more ammunition. A mistake, yes, but one that will hopefully be forgotten come May.
The truth is we won’t really know until sunday.
I’ve written about this in a column i right about general football. Feel free to have a read http://twisifootballcolumn.blogspot.com/2009/12/mccarthy-gives-united-early-christmas.html
the backlash seems pretty bad, so it must be a poor news week.
it was disappointing that it wasnt the team that beat spurs, but a lot of that team that played have put in a shift previously but as people dont know / or care to know about our team it looks bad, and that will be the over riding impression.
the PL has written to Mick to explain his reasons for changing 10 players, if anything comes of this it will be shocking compared to what we need to do to survive whereas other teams do it to try and win more trophies / MAKE MONEY! surely the same principle as us.
Also Arthur Williams the apparent wovles supporter chief has just added salt to the wounds by branding it disrespectful. i think it was a mistake by mick for making it so obvious but well done Arthur for helping putting your ‘beloved’ team in the shit!
Sam 2.0. Do you not think it was disrespectful???
I think it was disrespectful to the players, the fans, the club and the rest of the PL.
Weakend teams in a cup competition is a completely different thing. if we need Man U to beat Hull but they change all 10 outfiled players because a game 5 days later you would be screwing and shouting DISRESPECFUL from the roof tops.
I feel sorry for the preferred XI. Playing at OT would be the highlight of some of those lads’ careers and to take that away from them is horrible. Especially seeing as a lot of those playing last night played there in the League Cup.
Also the traffic last night was horrendous, didn’t get back til just after 2
Some one with common sense wrote this on the offside.com –
“But there’s also an argument that Mick McCarthy didn’t make, which is that he just did what Ferguson at Man Utd, Wenger at Arsenal and Benitez at Liverpool have been doing for years, and selected a weakened team based on where his priorities lie.
When Man Utd’s priority in May 2009 was the Champions League, Fergie sent a weakened Premier League team out to face Hull in May 2009. The big difference of course is that Man Utd still won that game 1-0. But the principle is basically the same. Ferguson deliberately lowered Man Utd’s chances of winning that game because he had other priorities. Just like McCarthy deliberately lowered Wolves chances of getting a result at Old Trafford because he had other priorities.
Wolves priority is survival, which means beating teams like Burnley this Sunday, not chasing teams like Man Utd around at Old Trafford.
If you agree with this link of thinking (and I’m sure not everyone will) then Mick McCarthy’s team selection is actually a sort of bizarre moral victory for the Premier League’s smaller teams. If the big boys are allowed to field weakened teams for whatever reason, then the smaller teams should be allowed to exactly the same thing.”
If we played a full team last night and scraped a draw and lost to Burnley because our players were knackered, the McCarthy out brigade would still be calling for his head. He’s in a no win situation. Lets see how many of you will be moaning if we beat Burnley and go above them in the tables.
For those of you moaning about your 42 quid and travel costs, did you see a Wolves team play? Did they perform reasonably well? Did they do better at OT than at the Mol against Arsenal and Birmingham? We support the team no matter who plays!
I hear many say the decision was disrespectful to the players etc., but isn’t it more disrespectful to the team that played last night that supporters are asking for their money back? It’s like telling every player that played last night “your shit and don’t ever play for the Wolves again and if you do I want my money back!” How do you think this is affecting those players who all have an important role to play for the remainder of the season.
People jump on the bandwagon too quickly. We got beat, so what! Chances were that we would have been beaten anyway, I mean how many of you in the preview thread said we would beat Man Utd??? No one did, not one! In which case does it matter what team we play and if playing one team gives us an advantage in our next game then surely that’s the right decision.
i agree with Jed. people need to see the big picture and if we get under the skin of some of the established clubs by using the same tactics then fine.
I myself felt disappointed at first but then i believe in Mick and the way he handles himself and the club. im gunna trust him. Yeah for those who spent money and felt cheated that is bad, but what jed said about not believing in the players out there is true.
its a difficult subject and im nto gunna lie, i have felt every emotion regarding this subject but in the end, although seemingly a little under handed i honestly believe mick did it for the most honest of reasons.
A disappointing, defeatist display at old trafford.
By selecting a second-string side, the manager not only gave the initiative to man utd, but also, surrendered the impetus gained by 2 good performances.
Wolves are a premiership club by right, and do not need to display an inferiority complex, more suited to lesser clubs. and its not as though old trafford is the bastion it once was.
One would have hoped lessons were learned from the chelsea debacle obviously not.
No one’s denying Mick did it for the good of the club, of course he did. He didn’t just pick the names out of a hat.
Which ever way you look at it, it was a surrender. Why not just rest 4 or 5 players? I hear Burnley are going full strength tonight, 3 games in a week, how will they cope?
Professional footballers should be able to play 3 in a week. They get paid enough for it. But i can see why he did it. Empathise if not totally agree.
And because i don’t fully agree it does not make me naive, fickle or stupid. I still fully support Mick. He’s done an excellent job and i won’t ever turn against him, I may disagree now and then. These idiots calling for his head are crazy.
I just pray he doesn’t do the same thing Boxing day at Anfield.
Fair play to Mick. Nobody complains when the top four teams rest their best players when they have a big European game coming up. The media
reaction has been ridiculous, and the FA requesting an explanation just shows how much they favour the bigger teams. Did they ask “Sir Alex” for an explanation when United put out a weakened side against Hull at the end of last season before the Champions League final?
We might not win against Burnley on Sunday, but Mick’s given us the best possible chance.
PS. do feel sorry for the Wolves fans who shelled out for the game though!
I’ve got a lot of good mates who are really wound up about this but I just cant seem to get angry about it.. All I find myself thinking about day in day out is the league table and hoping we stay up – from where I’m standing that league table looks better right now than it has almost all season.. Hull, West Ham and Portsmouth all have Big 4 games at the weekend so if we win we should be at least 14th come Sunday night.. maybe as high as 12th! Surely thats what matters?
I went on Tuesday.. I got home knackered at 2am.. but I went expecting to lose and I picked the positives out of seeing Mancienne, Foley and Surman impress. Of course, its not nice to hear and read the national view that we deserve to be deducted points / go down / be banned from professional football etc etc but I’m inclined to laugh it off – which will be a lot easier with 3 points on Sunday.. preferably with a couple of late goals against a tiring Burnley side.
Jed – well argued, it is also important to note that Daryl who wrote that article is a Wolves fan not just an average hack correspondent.
I like theoffside, and even am published on there, running a FM blog (LLM) and having posted this (and the couple of posts before it) about Wolves’ trip to Perth (where I live).
http://wolves.theoffside.com/team-news/wolves-2-1-north-queensland-fury-match-review-by-tom-barratt.html
The most frustrating thing about all of this is the amount of attention that’s on the team. I’d rather we were quietly getting on with our business of survival, than have the red tops clammering to latch on to MM and the team should the worst happen at the weekend.
Did anyone at the game see MM have a word with Hof when he went off? Wasn’t sure whether it looked like he was getting a ticking off or a pat on the back? (I’m hoping it was the first)
Jed, totaly disagree, changing 3 – 4 even 5 players, OK, but changing every single out field player is unacceptable. I don’t think even the big 4 have swaped their entire team for a fixture.
Plus, we just won at WHL, why not just go and get a result at OT as well?? And look what happend last night at turff moore, Burnly team get a result agaist Arsenal, and now that team briming with confidence after that performance is coming down here on Sunday.
MM has don what he has done for and extra 2 days rest, what a joke and in the process has brought the entrie english media to bare down on us ahead of an already massive game.
Sorry Mick, you dropped a real bollock over this one.
Jed, very well put mate. I can honestly say I think you have won me over (and also I’ve had an extra 24 hours to calm down!!!) I still have my reservations about how it could effect the team and the squad but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that develops. But easily the most important thing is staying in the premiership rather than winning one game. If Mick gives us a better chance of doing that by ensuring he has a fully fit first team for our must win games then that is what we must do. As you say its exactly what all the big 4 do. They have been devalueing competitions like the FA cup, carling cup and the premiership for years so that they can concentrate on the lure of the mega bucks of the champions league. Even Martin O’Neil, one of the most respected managers out there, did it last season in the UEFA cup
Edward, why not do the same at WHL then? No expected us to get a result there either. Why not give the first team 2 weeks to prepare for the game agaist Burnly?
The back to back wins had given the fans a real sense of optimism, you can argue about it being false optimism if you like but the fact is our first 11, although not fancied, just like at WHL could have gone to OT and matbe got something.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2009/12/no_white_flag_for_burnleys_coy.html
McNulty’s comparison to the Burnley game is slightly mischievous given that the context for their game was different.
Could have!! Maybe!! We’ll never know!!
His reasoning was to rest them because of the efforts of WHL. They had a week to recover from the Bolton game so were in good shape for the spurs game.
Look mate i’m not saying I agree with it or that its something i’m glad he did. I just can sort of see his thinking behind it. Big danger is now, that it all blows up in his face!
Exaclty, what happens now if we don’t get the three points against Burnly?? What ever else it has done it has caused a big stir, polorised opinion and heapped even more pressure and media attention on an already massive game on Sunday.
I sure MM will use it to try and bring his squad together in a siege mentality, but I sure OC will use it in exactly the same way to fire up the Burnly players.
Time will tell. One thing for sure, I can’t wait until Sunday!!!!
Express and Star is screaming “Wenger Fires Rocket at Wolves Boss”
After his half time rant at the weekend, Wenger’s taken to arms. What next? “Wenger Nukes Tottenham”?
What a joke of a team selection.
I feel sorry for the fans that took a day off work and paid £42 to go and watch reserve team football.
I feel sorry for the first team who were probably looking forward to playing at old trafford.
I feel ashamed of all the media attention MM’s actions have heaped onto the team and the fans.
I also think professional football players should be able to play two games in a week anyway. When I am tired I still have to go to work and perform and some of them earn more in a couple of weeks than I earn in a year.
Fair play Burnley for getting a point against Arsenal yesterday – you deserve it for not trying stupid selections.
Talk about heaping on the pressure for Sunday – lets see how clever resting 10 players is by 3pm on Sunday. 3 points and MM will probably get away with it, anything less and I dread to think what the reaction will be.
dboy – apparently mick had a word with the hof cuz he was having a go a vidic and looked like he could get sent off, you know like the cahill/howard incident. It was more of a ‘calm down’ i think
wenger was ‘disappointed’ and said arsenal can only compete with united over 37 games now. hardly a rocket, but he was right i spose.
as for Burnley, great result for them, should have won, but then they were at home. I doubt very much they’d have gone to the emirates and done the same thing. they’re a different animal away from home but they will be brimming with confidence
Burnley were at home but so were wolves when I had the pleasure of paying £38 to watch Arsenal dick them 1:4!
I think Burnley benefit from having an old sh*tty stadium that the big boys dont like to turn up and play at! The pitch is also close to the stands to create a hostile atmosphere – unlike Molineux where (since shrinking the pitch) it feels like I am sitting in Tettenhall to watch the games now!
Lets all not forget that Wenger is a complete tw@t and anything we can do to annoy him is a bonus. They wont win the league anyway, regardless of wolves playing reserves at Man Utd, if anyone should be upset it’s Chelsea – another club I find it hard to have sympathy for. Maybe MM did a deal with Fergie and we will sign Rooney and Ferdinand on loan in January!
Stourbridge – your analogy of us having to go to work when we are tired doesn’t compare at all to being a professional sports person. They are 2 very different types of exertions. Physical tiredness is very different to mental tiredness.
And don’t think Mick hasn’t made this decision after speaking to his players first. Its was those players saying that they had given 110% in the spurs game and be aching the day/2 days after that helped him make his decision. So to say you feel sorry for the first team for being denied the chance to play at Old Trafford doesn’t really wash either
exactly mick can only pick the team on the information that players give him. if 7 say thy are knackered and wont be able to put up a big fit mick probably thought, fuck it then lets swap the whole squad.
Also how does the amount of money you earn stop you from getting tired!!!! Does it have some magical powers!!
3 games in 8 days, what was I thinking??? Of course the precious little flowers can’t be expected to do that…………I take it all back.
Not a chance any one of those players said “you know what boss, I don’t fancy playing on Tuesday” never mid suggesting that 7 did Sam 2.0 and if they did they should never play again.
It was MM decision no one elses, the players don’t get a say. That’s why the call him “GAFFER”
Edward, do you think as well then that the majority of the team said they didn’t want to play at OT and that forced MM hand in to swapping all 10 outfield players???
You play, if you were tired but fit, would tell your gaffer I don’t want to be involved??
Obviously Edward and Sam feel running around for 180 minutes per week is beyond the capability of players who’s entire life is centred around training for fitness? I totally disagree
Well said Emerald Pete ‘Precious Little Flowers’ – that just about sums them up. They were all capable of playing more games last season in the Championship – which is a more physical game.
Money does not stop you getting tired Edward – but as a ‘professional footballer’ you should be robust enough to meet the demands of the game. I see all of the other 19 prem league teams managed to put out a decent team after their games over the weekend.
The fact is this tired players excuse is b*llocks – MM gave up on this game. Having said that as I put in my earlier post I bet most of the first team would have wanted their chance to play at Old Trafford anyway.
Tactical master stroke or complete farse – Sunday’s result will decide!
Pete/Stourbrige – I doubt any of them would have ever said they don’t want to play a game let alone one at old trafford on tuesday. But if they were asked the question would they be able to perform at 100% then that is a very different question. Yes Mick will have then had the final decision but don’t think he wouldn’t have consulted the players in this.
And how is playing in the championship more tiring than playing in the premiership. We spend more time in this league without the ball, closing down players, spaces (well not that we did in the brum game!!) etc etc. Yeah it might not be a physical but there are other problems that playing at this level cause
True, we do spend most of the time chasing the ball. Except against blues – still haven’t forgiven the lazy f*ckers for that one ha,ha,ha!
I see Wenger is now complaining about fixture congestion over Christmas – I suggest he should try resting some players from his next game!
Yawn Yawn Yawn, somebody please change the record!
Looking at all the comments over the last few days with great interest… fair to say Wolves fans very divided on the issue… I have to say that I agree with MM… Remember this time last week we would bitten off the hand that suggested we would get 3 points from 2 aways to Spurs & USA Utd…. Burnley @ home was always going to be a biggie…(it would have even more pressure if we lost to Spurs as well) Interesting that Spurs gave Arabia City a good hiding. As for all this nonsense about “disrespectful” to the Premier League… what horseshit.. Premier league / FA blazers don’t give a shit about Wolves… and as for Chelsea, Arsenal et al… F?ck them… I’m sure that the people @ Carling who write the sponsorship cheque for their Cup are delighted that the big 4 play their B teams in their matches ! Most English clubs are willing to prostitute themselves to any passing carbetbagger with a few bob in his pocket… Premier League blazers dont loose any sleep over that… I’m amazed that clubs in the basement don’t adopt this “tactic” more when playing away to the “big” 4…. OK, I can see our fans being a bit peeved having made the effort to travel, however, remember that our “first” 11 could have still been hit for 3 & imagine if we’ed lost Doyler , Milijas, SEB, Henry to an injury…… Anyway, if you’re goin on Sunday roar the lads on…. (isn’t Sunday morning a shit time to go to Football)….. C’mon the Wolves…………..
Leinster Wolf, if SEB got injured, would we miss him? Hardly. He has been absolute tosh this year, and certainly not worth a starting place. Trouble is, what lese is there other than that donkey Hoff? Typical Wolves, no ambitin I’m afraid
Funny, Maierhofer really impressed me at United. He won the ball and kept it. When on the ball he brought others into the game and off the ball chased it.
Louie. Behave. He was a joke. He won very little in the air, his touch was atrocious and his work rate is pathetic. Sorry fella, I’m usually very supportive of finding the positives in all who play for us, but this guy’s not good at the moment.
Wow. He was much better than Iwelumo (he got less time tho). He started winning it too. I thought he was really good. He kept keeping the ball.
I thought Iwelumo played closer to the action when he came on and chased the cause harder (but granted he didn’t do much). Funny old game isn’t it? I’d have the Hof as the worst player on the pitch some distance
I thought Halford was the worst. Iwelumo didn’t keep the ball once but Maierhofer kept it almost every time. I think he only took him off because he looked like getting sent off again, he certainly gets stuck in though.
OK, this is my very last post about this, but I just read and I thought it summed up the way I feel better than anything I have written on here so far.
Please take the time to read and if you haven’t already please let me know your view and if you have made you view s clear a retorte would be very welcome also.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/robborobson/2009/12/taking_the_mick.html
Let me end this discussion – I think they are both sh*te! ha,ha,ha!