Player ratings v Jets

Paston 6 Saved a pen, a couple of terrible moments that should have cost us, lucky

Manny 6.5 Did well. got fwd usefully too

Siggy 7 Won his challenges well, but the central pair were pulled apart too easily

Dodd 5 Lucky not to be sent off too, ditto

Lochhy 4 Call those crosses? Keepers don't even bother having catching practice to gather those

Brown 4 Invisiible

McKain 6.5 worked butt off, a few stray passes

Ferrante 6 Good to see all the shots. His passes were more useful though

Fred 6.5 Great control, looking to pass in very tight areas

Leo 8 Looked the only one likely to break through

Smeltzy 7 Disinterested at times, but what a great header

Troy 7 Did make things happen, well done

Daniel 6 Looked good

 

Am I too negative? It felt like a crap performance for much of the game. 

 

i reckon OOE was a bit harsh with Timmo and Fred's scores though

 

p.s. - something is a bit weird though, every time i post it says there's an error , but the post has always been there - perhaps Cnut is trying some crazy cyber-guy head-messing move

Paston - 7 - Full marks for the pen save but I won't forget the moment I thought they'd scored in an open net.

 

Muscat - 6.5 - Not a effective as in his games against Sydney but he defended well and did his attacking job well.

Siggy - 7 - Another heart-on-the-sleeve performance from the next AWs captain, solid but without as many silly Dodd mistakes.

Dodd - 5.5 - his worst CB perfromance this season, gave away too many freekicks and deserved to be sent off.

Lochhead - 6 - As always he got forward well but it talk him far to long to realise his crosses weren't working and his defensive work needs some sharpening.

 

McKain - 7 - Good, safe DM play, outclassed Tommo entirely.

Brown - 6 -  Hung around his position but left too much wook for McKain.

Fred - 7 - Good debut, nice touches and linkup with Leo. Screwed his chance to score by taking too many touches.

 

Bertos - 7.5 - Outclassed everyone in the first half, ran with the ball well and linked with Lochhead and Fred nicely

Smeltz - 6.5 - Nice header but not much else other than a new shocking hairstyle.

 

Hearfield - 7 - Well taken goal and played a big part in the win.

Daniel - 7.5 - Got us going, once again I say he should be starting.

 

Too kind on Smeltz - 5     I would have given him 4 for his wrst game in a Nix jersey but gave him an extra 1 for the goal

Paston 6 Crap again. Rushes out of his line way too often and gets caught in no mans land. Saved the penalty (which was hit very badly by El**ch) but that doesn't excuse his otherwork.

Manny 6.5 Didn't do much wrong.

Siggy 7 Solid enough. In the first 20 mins the defence found it hard to deal with a few long balls though.

Dodd 7 Thought he actually played quite well. He got forward a few times trying to provide much needed impetus. Gave away the penalty and by all rights shouldn't have been on the pitch by the end, though. He'll be out next week and I think we will miss him.

Lochhy 5.5 Thought he was pretty bad today. You would think he would learn after the 2000th cross that Covic eats floaty crosses for breakfast.

Brown 6 Solid without being spectacular. (which is fine because Bertos, Fred, Smeltz, Hearfield, Daniel etc. should be providing the spectacular moments)

McKain 7 Solid again. Has been much improved since moving into the DM role.

Ferrante 6 Those shots were infuriating. He did the same shot about 8 times. You don't take pot shots from outside the box when you are one or two men up. Terrible and cringe worthy stuff. His passing was better than the last few games, though.

Fred 7 Drifted out in the 2nd half. Did about as much as you could expect in his first game and some of the interplay between him and Bertos was great.

Leo 8 Terrific as he has been for a while. Stand out player once again.

Smeltzy 6.5 Thought he was terrible until the goal. Great finish.

Troy 7.5 Came on and provided the assist. Can't really ask much more.

Daniel 7 Thought he provided a bit of spark and think that he should start ahead of Ferrante.

 

Found it odd that we kept 2 holding midfielders when it was 11 v 9.

 

 

I felt that once we were playing 9, that we would have pushed more forward?? didn't happen soon enough, Troy made a huge difference when he came on as did Daniel.

 

I'd probably rate Daniel a bit higher - he looked very keen when he came on but other than that pretty well spot on.

 

Manny 6.5
Got forward nicely and was sound at the back.

Siggy 7
Solid as always, did well at fullback also and got forward when required.

Dodd 5.5
Poor discipline could have cost us at several different points. Partially redeemed himself with the fantastic crossfield ball that led to the second goal. His physical presence is helpful at the back also.

Lochy 5
Got forward well, showed plenty of gas. His crossing was off though.

Brown 5
Had a fairly quiet game, but still contributed to us controlling the midfield.

McKain 7
Kept Song out of the game and provided speed and presence. Mission accomplished.

Ferrante 6.5

Incredibly hard working as always. Nice to seem him trying to shoot, kept the keeper on his toes. Crossfield passing was excellent as always, helped to stretch Newcastle when they went down to 9.

Fred 7.5

He was clearly a cut above everyone else on the pitch. Gets involved so often, has pace and skill. Should have put us in the lead after Leo put him through, but his overall performance allows me to forgive him for this. Looks like he will provide just what we have been missing.

Leo 8

His best game for us to date. He looked fit and hungry. Great work to put Fred through and his work setting up Hearfield late on showed his commitment.

Smeltzy 7

Not as involved as usual. Gets one chance (and a tricky one at that) and absolutely buries it. Invaluable.

Troy 7.5

Did everything required as supersub. Scored one and creates the other. Linked up well with Leo. Justified his selection ahead of Costa on the bench.

Daniel 7

Very nice work from Daniel. Have a look at his control of Dodd's crossfield ball and then the instant through ball to Bertos which led to Hearfield's goal.

Ricki 7.5

A fine week for Ricki. A shame that Moss isn't our starting keeper, and now that he is leaving I can't see Paston getting dropped sadly. Otherwise, the starting XI was spot on. Durante will be hungry now that he has spent time on the bench. 3 in the midfield is essential because none of our CM's are individualy good enough to control a game (hence why sides like Queensland overrun us). Interesting that we seemed to be playing an essentially wingerless formation, very Chelseaesque in some ways. McKain was holding, Ferrante and Brown were the CM's who were both expected to get wide at times as well (Ferrante did this better than Brown), while Fred played in a free role behind Smeltz and Leo (who also hovered around the place).

Fred and Leo linked up fantastically, and if Smeltz can get in on the act as well that front 3 should be as good as any in the league. Brown, McKain and Ferrante provide a solid base and our back 4 are improving each week. Durante gets a chance to displace Dodd from the XI this week, I think Sigmund should start at CB because he is rock solid, while Muscat offers more going forward and if we play without wingers (as we did on Sunday) our fullbacks have to provide most of our width. Daniel and Hearfield give us guile and pace respectively off the bench and it looks like we finally have a settled starting XI. I am optimistic for the first time in weeks about our top 4 prospects. Ricki got his subs spot on, Fred was tiring and needed to be protected while Muscat was a clever player to remove for Hearfield. Both subs were involved in the goals and they both had enough time to influence the match. Bringing Hearfield on late was especially clever because by that stage Newcastle were too tired to deal with his pace.

 

pastons distribution and organisation is alot better than mossies!Paston to stay in goal!

 

moss was good for us last year coz he was spose to be number 2, got a chance and some confidence and had a good year. but the year is ove rand he does not look like he has any confidence or fight to get his place back!

 

plus judas 2(moss) is off, let the "to small to be a goal kepper anyway" piss off to the victory

 

surely in a summer league, such Fancy Dan underwear would be a bit unnecessary?

 

He does have a tendency to misjudge when to go for the ball, but I can think of quite a few international keepers of high reputation who have the same problem - just watch Carson's cockup for England against Germany the other night (which incidentally was almost a carbon copy of a Paston/Sigmund moment if I remember rightly).