Well, ANOTHER fightback – although this time not quite for the win.
That 2nd half performance was terrific and we were unfortunate not to go on and win it. My man of the match, Jean Beausejour, scored the first after Zigic’s shot ricoched across the box. Just a few minutes later, Beausejour was put through by Murphy, the crowd’s man of the match, and after taking the ball into the box – was bought down. King planted the penalty into the bottom left hand corner.
N’Daw had a 30 yard shot tipped onto the bar and we had a number of chances to get the winner. Club Brugge did have a few opportunities in the 2nd including hitting the woodwork themselves, however we were by far the better side.
This is all after a pretty poor 1st half. Yes we hit the post, but Club Brugge totally bossed us. Both their goals came from poor defending. The first terrible positioning from a corner leaving a free shot. The 2nd was from a ball given away in the middle but there were 3 Club Brugge attackers and they scored from a great move. (Although the player who put it in looked offside).
The thing for me tonight, other than the obvious plaudits for the attacking play in the 2nd, was the terrible defending not just in the 1st but into the 2nd too. Chris Hughton HAS to sort that. All 4 of the defence had poor games at the back. I was concerned that they were going to score every time they came forward in the 1st especially. Although they improved in the 2nd, there were still a number of slips, bad decisions and poor passing. If we can sort that with our attack, we will be fine this season.
Back to Europe though, this result although only gives us a point – is worth a 2nd point in regard to Club Brugge in the league. If we finish level points as them in the league, we’ll finish above them on the head to head. This means we only have to match their results in the final 2 games and we qualify for the knock out stages.
I’m enjoying this, aren’t you?
Kev
All 4 defenders had bad games? Murphy, at LB, was MOTM so he can’t have had that bad a game Kev! However, despite the potential to fall out with big al on the Forum, Jack N’Daw was my MOTM. Strange performance tonight, not at the races in the first half, Murphy’s crossbar rattler aside, and even though the 2nd goal was offside, we couldn’t complain about being 2-0 down at HT. So what was the difference in the 2nd half? We scored the first with the same team on the pitch, and to me, it’s the first 30 mins of every game that is the problem…..have we scored early in any game? We are riding our luck by continually having to play catch up – I recognise that we have kept a couple of clean sheets on the bounce before tonight but we haven’t scored that many either, and luck is going to run out eventually. I can’t believe that Ridgewell is the answer to that conundrum….but maybe Carr is!!
After that 1st half, I thought we were dead and buried,!!. Thank god for that fightback, Nearly, but not quite,!!.
Agree. Thought Beausejour MOTM, he was totally committed and tireless. Otherwise midfield looked porous, hence the long balls forward, yet when we ran at them, they crumbled. A bit like West Ham last season. But all in all, we didn’t lose, and no-one can say that was a boring game.
I thought that was it after the first half, a remarkable turnaround in the second half for the blues, praying that the european adventure can continue for us so hoping we’ll progress from the group stages, great summary of the night, KRO!
Excellent summary Kev. I don’t think we have a ready replacement for Carr at right back, I prefer Spector in midfield although not one of my first choices. I really thought Parnaby would have been a great solution but for some reason that deal fell through. For me Chris Burke is the spark within the team and for him to be rested last night I believe was the real reason we struggled from the start. Giving Zigic so much game time at the moment suggests to me that he is in the shop window and needs to be seen to be getting plenty of action to attract any suitors, really doesn’t make sense to keep King and Wood on the bench for so long, really think that “play Zigic” is an instruction from above. Little disappointing that Redmond hasn’t been given more of a chance, think he would have relished last night. But you can’t take anything away from CH he has been brilliant from day one, a real class act working with such behind the scenes financial problems, just hope those problems don’t see us needing to offload too many of our squad this January. KRO.
Totally agree on MOTM, though I thought N’Daw did VERY well. (Well N’Dawed indeed, ahem!). Murphy wasn’t my MOTM, but he did put in a VERY good performance. The problem with our first half – for me – was lack of ‘gelling time’. My grandad (who was at the match with two of his grandchildren and a great grandchild (my son!) said he drove past St Andrews on Wednesday night to see it floodlit, so we guessed they must have been trying to conjure up “match time” for the selected XI.
Doyle – not first choice.
No Carr/Ridgewell/Davies – no 1st/2nd/3rd choice captain
Elliott & Ibanez – Just back from injury
N’Daw – only Cup and reserve matches played
Rooney – not first choice
All in all, a deserved point and if you’ve seen some doom merchants now “We’ll go out if we don’t beat Braga” how would it have been without those two sublime moments from Beausejour and King? I so wish N’Daw’s goal had gone in, even if it still ended 2-2. A thunderbolt shot. I hope he gets more first team starts.
Keep Right On, and cheers for a great summary Kev!