nottsblue wrote:Under 23s 2-1 up at home to the dippers. Keep it up boys, any victory over them is sweet
Won 3.2 in the end and that's a great much needed result. I saw mention on twitter that's the best EDS performance for ages and maybe it was but I actually thought we were pretty poor and there for the taking. Fortunately Liverpool were pretty average as well.
After about 20 minutes or so we were looking crap ,hardly getting forward at all and gave a penalty away with a rash tackle from Latibeaudierre ( like the Stones one against Bristol) I feared the worst as we just were not playing well but out of the blue a break down the middle, LPool tried to play offside but failed and Gonzalez went through to score.
Still I wasnt expecting mucsh . Liverpool had agreat chance but hit the post and then Matondo ,moved from the right to the left wing suddenly sprinted away and finished through the keepers legs. 2.1 up at half time but 2 key moments apart from the goals were bad injuries to Ben Garre of City and Brewster of Liverpool. Both looked like ligament injuries to me and we had about 10 minutes of injury time.
We got a key third goal when Dilrosun go to the byline, pulled it back and Felix Nmecha smacked it home with his wrong foot. LPool did get one back with 3 minutes to go but a win is a win.
I get very confused with the EDS both the selection , the formation they play and then the individual performances.
We started with a back 4 but without a real full back. Maybe the ones we have are injured I don't know but Oliver as right back and Davenport at left back are just not good enough to play those positions. They will try hard etc etc but they don't like it there and don't play well there. Notably as soon as Lpool scored we changed to 3 at the back with Davenport moving to join Smith in central holding midfield roles.
The creative midfielf just in front was supposed to be Tom Dele Bashiru and Dilrosun. Tom was lost and just didnt get into the game at all. Dilrosun is a winger and just kept getting caught in possession. Crazy as Dilrosun's normal and best position is as a winger but we had Garre playing wide left! Garre I belive when he joined was seen as a number 10! Weird.
Smith ,who is a fantastic workhorse in the middle, struggled to get hold of the game. His shorter passes were getting picked off so, he far too often, just lumped it forward. We seemed to lack a pattern or plan and yet someone said its the best we have played for ages!
Matondo's goal was individual quality and only slightly helped by the fact the the full back ( 6 feet 6 inches tall at least) had just done his hamstring and couldnt tackle him!
Of course there were some good bits from individuals. Francis mostly ok but for getting skinned when drawn to the wing and it ended with the penalty. Joel good apart from the penalty tackle. Curtis Anderson ( under 17 world cup winner) was pretty good in goal with a few iffy moments trying to play from the back. Mostly though much of that was the weakness of the players in front of him.
Ah well ,as I said a win is a win and its onto the under 18's tomorrow v Newcastle.