Yea Why Not wrote:I agree about Hall. That was not the time to give him is debut
But why take off Baldock? As soon as he left the pitch I just knew we wasn't going to score. It's players like him who make space for others, force tired defenders into silly mistakes, get in behind the full back and the center half. He didn't have a great game but with a player up top working as hard as he does there's always a chance something might happen. Instead Fat Sam just wacks on the biggest, blackest subs possible, narrows everything up and hopes for a lucky goal with a long ball into a congested penalty area
That's not to mention the negative atmosphere the substitute created in the stadium
It did sound, on the radio, that from the moment Baldock went off we lost any chance of winning. Not because he was a threat, but it just made us even more one-dimensional, and Bristol were more than happy to soak up the physical ariel side of things
Up until that point, it sounded like we were doing pretty well, creating decent chances/half chances, and keeping Bristol under a lot of pressure (odd breakaway not withstanding). If it hadn't been for poor finishing, we may have won the game easily. I couldn't help feeling that if we got one they would be there for the taking, and I spent most of the game thinking it was a case of when we scored and went on to win the game, rather than if
It did seem that taking Balders off released any pressure we had Bristol under, and from that point I no longer felt we were going to win it, and was more concerned we were going to lose to a last minute Bristol goal
I have to say Sam's decisions seemed utterly baffling to me. Sure, he was limited in his options having to replace Reid early on, but I just don't get what he was thinking. Why he kept Piq on is a total mystery, only slighly more mysterious than why Nolan hasn't missed a second of our campaign so far.
The changes I'd have made was Cole for Piq, which would have allowed Balders to try and pair up with Carlton (something he seems to have done very well with Carew, but not at all with Piq) and hope the change might allow Balders to play a more effective role.
And I'd have taken Nolan off for Diop, which would have allowed Noble, the full backs, the 2 players on the flanks, to push a bit further forwards knowing their back was covered
In the end, I had no idea what sort of system we were attempting to play, how Sam was hoping to balance the side with the players he had on the pitch, and started being reminded of the dark days of Avram, when I had no idea what we were trying to do
A shame really, as for most of the game, up until the 2 later subs, it sounded like a decent performance, and fairly entertaining