We were by far the better team for 85 of the 90 minutes. And if only Fofana had gone down in the last 30 seconds instead of staying on his feet.
Need to praise Smith though, it's not the fact he wins all the headers, it's that he can angle them to wherever he wants to put it
Snd whilst it's not an excuse, the pitch was diabolical. On a proper pitch, we'd have kept the ball better and certainly would have won
Dont praise Smith for gods sake..
You will have about 3 who are posting on here now cursing and having
a Sleepless night... 086.gif
I am not sure we were the best team for 85 of the 90 minutes. We were certainly better from the 85th to the 94th minute though and had a couple of great breaks to win it and screwed them up.
Smith was good but it was all long ball. Pitch didn't help but for the most part it was hoof ball at it's ugliest but that's the price we have to pay I guess.
Quote from: Artful Dodger on March 14, 2015, 06:07:41 PM
I am not sure we were the best team for 85 of the 90 minutes. We were certainly better from the 85th to the 94th minute though and had a couple of great breaks to win it and screwed them up.
Smith was good but it was all long ball. Pitch didn't help but for the most part it was hoof ball at it's ugliest but that's the price we have to pay I guess.
If it keeps us up yes.
We can sort it out in the Summer, a result anyway will do till the
end of season..
It was this magical spell towards the end which showed Fulham still had the spark in. I think it brought most, if not all, shots on target. But earlier... please give me a break: passes in the general direction of intended players, but nothing precise; losing balls so easily; Bettinelli was also far from punctual in his intended kicks. Indeed, the pitch was like playing on sticky snow but yet, at moments I was wondering whether this was a Championship game or below. Still, I so much hope that the 'we are staying up' chant will prove to be prophetic.
A further reflection on the game, a lot of people have said if we have to play ugly, that is the price to pay for staying up but for 65 minutes we didn't have a shot on target (and barely any shots anyway). It was only when we went to the infamous diamond formation with RM behind Woodrow and Smith that we started playing football, scored and should have won it.
I accept that the game was opening up at that point, but it does beg the question whether the 'long ball to Smith' is any more effective than 'the diamond' given we were awful up to the point we changed it. I think we need to find an effective half way house in that Smith is a great physical presence and clearly playing with confidence but just lumping long balls was no more effective for 70 minutes than some of the tippy tappy stuff we have played. Despite playing a 4-4-2,we still didn't get the ball wide often and maybe that is the answer - replace Kavanagh with Kaca an tell him to go past his man and get crosses in for Smith??