Christ, to those moaning about our difficulty breaking down CCM, I've seen Barcelona struggle to break down a side that sets up it's stall like CCM did. They are pretty good at holding the fort.
Nix stuck at it, created several half chances, had several one-twos broken up by a foot in, bombed in cross after cross.
Sure
a bit of quality on the crosses would have helped and taller central
attackers. But the lads were working it. And tired. They did a lot of
work. Much more movement off the ball, much less long ball and sit.
My measure (apart from my own opinions) are the perception of my less footy mad mates. They tend to be fairly straightforward measures of whether Nix are playing well and whether the game was enjoyable. They:
a) enjoyed the game
b) thought we were playing attactive football and were working hard to press a well organised CCM back eight, and
c) they thought Nix deserved the result
d) but felt we could develop more options to play through the middle
+ I am almost certain the CCM goal should have been offside
offside position on the shot and deflection off the goalkeeper before the tap in = off side
Good result, against a good side and could have been better. Totori deserves a start. Sanchez has and continues to make a difference. Fenton doing well enough, could improve and be a real handful. Back four looked better organised with one pressing forward - when three, they were much tighter than last week.
Loved Brockies casual I'm-way-offside-back-to-goal-flick for a (non-)goal and Boyds attempted flick onto goal.
Not Barcelona, but shaping up well.
Good post - agree with it all, especially b) and d) - in the form of Sanchez.