Dry them and move onwards
Saturday, April 3, 2010 at 6:47PM What a ridiculous waste of an afternoon that was. Worst performance of the season? Spineless? A consequence of fragmented selection? Poisoned by lasagne?
Yeah sure, injuries aside, I still fancied us pre-match. Around about the 37 second mark I conceded that today would be shambolic and that conceded my confidence was cursed. To which it was.
Players looked lethargic and dis-interested. When Frazier Campbell is made to look like quality you know there has to be something surreal going on. In this case, the Spurs players appeared to drift away into next weekend and their FA Cup semi-final date. Knees trembling, for all to see.
Even a second half improvement (just about noticeable) wasn't enough, neither were the heroics of Gomes who saved two penalties, although he was probably guilty for that 36 second opener as he could have done better. Maybe that's a tad harsh. It smelt a goal the moment they got a corner. A preview of the pattern of the game that would play out over the 90 minutes. Us, willing Sunderland on, to have a pop at any given moment they chose.
Talking of pens, the ref was abysmal. One of the three he gave (the 3rd) was a no brainer - the first two were weak weak decisions. Although he sort of made amends for disallowing a 3rd Sunderland goal, which didn't matter because when Sunderland did score their third it was almost worthy of applauding, such was its genius. It's horrible horrible genius. A volley that will no doubt when goal of the month. Ref was also reluctant to dish out yellow cards. Although Wilson came out of the game without one. Small mercies.
Crouch cameo the only worthwhile moment to give us a glimmer of hope. Gomes proving that even though Bent believes he has banished the Sandra sound-bite by notching a brace and celebrating with much venom, he's still an idiot with a stupid beard (honestly, I have nothing more at the moment). His face after his second pen miss, a picture. The only picture I'll be choosing to remember cometh tomorrow. Defoe might have done better with a one-on-one, Gordon to the rescue, who then saved another goal-bound effort moments later. Bentley header in the first half, easily saved. Not sure there was anything else, offensively, for us.
There's probably plenty to analyse and discuss, and I had notes from the game and was planning on singling out one or two players who struggled and the detrimental impact the missing players had on the team - something I sort of refused to dwell on too much as a potential excuse pre-match.
Stuff like our inability to retain possession, control the ball, play with any type of shape, show any sustained intent and courage. Bassong missing Dawson. BAE lacking confidence. Palacios messy. Bale lacking composure with his passing. All-round clusterfuck to be fair.
Credit to Sunderland. Talk about making it an easy afternoon for them. If they had a better forward up front, it could have been humiliating (haha, yeah, still bitter). Jones air-kick testament to how stupid we and his owners were back when a £20M label was being tagged on his shirt. But they still won and Bent has taken his revenge, no doubt he'll be gutted he won't be able to Tweet about it.
So yeah, no deep thinking post-match tactical breakdown. The players never switched on. They hardly looked bothered. So if this was a pre-Wembley type of 'ooh let me try not to get injured' performance, then shame on all. Or perhaps I should just admit I was wrong and having so many players out has damaged us. Pompey might even fancy us now (j/k).
I just don't want to believe that we under-performed because the FA Cup was made a collective priority subconsciously by all who took the field. So I'll have to hug the excuse that the lack of Dawson, Corluka and Huddlestone and the forced re-shuffle has made us momentarily poop our pants.
Pushed, bullied, kicked and out-played. At least its done and out of our system. 5 wins on the trot halted and today makes it just 8 defeats all season in the Prem. Not bad. But we are no longer in the driving seat for 4th. Don't fret. I'm not knee-jerking. I've been saying it for a while, we'll still finish 4th. Just have to do things the hard way now.
Maybe conceding that goal so early was a catalyst, but to suggest had it not been scored we might have performed better is a bit like hoping that having gone 1-0 down we'd get back into the game. It won't happen unless you make it happen.
Tragic we failed to turn up for this. I'd rather we play beautifully and with effort and desire, and if we lose at least we can say we gave it some. Rather than just lube up and bend over.
What's that? City, 4 up at Burnley after 20 minutes? 5 up at half-time? Our goal-difference nervously looking over its shoulder? Although it's now City looking over their shoulder at us.
Okay, we really do have to do it the hard way now.
COYFS.
Reader Comments (116)
Anyone blamed Robbie Keane yet. If not, ca I just add that into the mix?
As for other stuff above, recent history suggests NLD will be a draw no matter how deserving either team is of a victory.
BUT we have a semi to concentrate on first.
And that will require effort, and focus and intensity, other wise it will be something of a flacid semi come the day.
well glad i did not tape the game , seen the summary on MOTD and was shocked at the below par passing , movement ... from Spurs
Nice of the lads to give DB such a good time ...
Can't believe it took 101 posts to get a semi innuendo in!
Had another go at the Predictor.
IF we get a draw vs. Arsenal and Chelsea (lose to Man U), and IF Liverpool lose to Chelsea at Anfield and are unable to beat Fulham, and IF Man City remain dodgy with a string of draws (they have some tough games too), and IF Villa are held to a draw in the Birmingham Derby, provided we win the Burnley and Bolton games we will squeak it. But it's bloody close.
YA, I've been busy up until post 100, others appear to have been sidetracked by our persistently resident goon.
Just as well we believe in the freedom of speech, even if some do abuse the priviledge.
555 - i am baffled.
To play the devil's advocate and view this from the dispassionate perspective of a neutral: We have to take fourth in order for good to triumph over evil. If you're a neutral, why on earth would you ever want City to win fourth? Those twats are already looking to spend their way into the top 3 and a CL berth will only make that worse. Pool to regain fourth? Boring and plain wrong given the season they've had. I could see Villa in fourth as being a not horrible outcome for neutrals but can they even accomplish that mathematically? Maybe.
This is bigger than us. We must take fourth. It's that simple.
nycyid..well said.
Can we sign Anton Ferdinand? It would make me proud to see that goal celebration down the Lane
CEJ - Don't worry about it, there are basically far too many 'ifs' to be certain about anything, so I'd suggest it's far from certain that it's all over as some have already decided (and I'm a long term pessimist). The scenario I looked at is well within the realms of possibility, though there are still lots of results which could potentially tip either way.
Interestingly, our tough games are coming up next which means we are definitely going to fall further behind the others. So after the Man U game it's going to look pretty bleak until we stuff Bolton on 1st May. We then draw with City, who will drop points against Villa, Arsenal, Man U and Birmingham. Liverpool are held by Fulham and lose to Chelsea. And don't write off Villa, as they will drop points to Everton, Birmingham and Man City, but a good result against any of those 3 could put them in with a good chance.
we're one point behind city. we still have to play them. they have to play united and arsenal and there's no reason why they can beat them if we can't. It's not over. And even if we finish 5th this year, we're back where we were before the ramos blip, competing for that spot. Only this time we have to keep the squad together and build on this season instead of selling our best players to man utd.
On the upside , i do not think Fergie is interested in one of our players this time around.
speaking of our red and white friends from the south, I could watch this little clip all day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IuXbFRt8GY
BOSH!!!
poor little Arsenal t**ts, why do they feel the need to come on here? I for one would never go any where near one of their pathetic little blogs for fear of contamination.
They're running scared and have been ever since the days of BMJ. Even with their inbred superiority complex, they're shitting themselves that we might actually put one over them in the league, win the cup AND fnish fourth.
All this in a season when they'll win f -all again
COYS!
Hello all my gooner friends. How'd you like to talk about your world-domination now.
That was embarrassing.
I'm with Fox Muldar on this one. And no flogging useful squad players to Sunderland either (Steeeed!)
I was posting pessimistically many many weeks ago, when we had that slump in late winter precisely because I thought it would be very tough to make up lost ground at this point of the season. So, I was already pretty much resigned to not getting fourth this season. Pity, cause NYCyid is right, Spurs getting fourth would be a triumph for the forces of light over darkness.
The good news is we have a real shot at serious silverware with the FA cup and have recovered the ground we lost with the Ramos debacle. Onwards and upwards. Audere est facere!