John McCormick writes: Colin e-mailed to ask if I could update the phone message Rob Hutchison sent after the game and which he’d managed to put up via his mobile. It seems a long time since Malcolm and I spent a pleasant pre-Accrington lunchtime in Rob and Olivia’s company and it’s always good to hear from him. Here he is with his one-word ratings after a rather different game:
McLaughlin 6 mixed
O’Nien 5 laboured
Baldwin 5 nervy
Flanigan 5 faded
James 6 endeavoured
Cattetmole 8 composed
Honeyman 6 grafted
Leadbitter 7 tidy
McGeady 9 mercurial MOTM
Morgan 6 tired
Grigg 5 quiet
Substitutes
Wyke 6 provided
Hume 6 glimpses
Power 5 nondescript
Gooch 5 insipid
Another Wembley appearance coming home with nowt, but we have much fatter fish to fry.
Agree with the ratings except for Gooch…more like a rampaging bull for me. Charging around a lot but just causing more damage
Spot on ratings IMO. Disappointing as it is to lose, with the chances created compared to ours, Portsmouth were worthy winners.
The inevitable question: having to choose, winning at Wembley or winning at Accrington? I would take Accrington.
Does this post mean the later one (but shown earlier) was an April Fool hoax??
Fantastic in the first half and paid for poor final ball. I struggle to see why Reece James gets picked ahead of Hume and Oviedo as he is a poor crosser and, given that he is supposed to be better defensively a bit poor to let his man in for the goal. I don’t want to be too critical as he is a good player who tries very hard. I just think that we have better options in the club.
We all knew that Cattermole had the character to volunteer to take a penalty but all hoped that he wouldn’t have to. For various reasons we had taken off 2 of our best penalty takers, so were always going to struggle.
What is starting to really worry me is the inability of Jack Ross and his staff to learn from errors. How many points have we lost this season to late equalisers when we are trying to hold on for a point but we put all our eggs in the holding on basket by replacing a striker with a 3rd holding midfielder with more than 1/2 hour to go. That was a horrific error and all in the ground knew except those on the bench. My fear is that he will repeat the error later this season and cost us promotion. He is also a man who prefers not to risk losing in order to win and that is a concern as well.
I want to end on positives though.
Fantastic weekend. Trafalgar Square was unreal. We showed great quality in the first half and could have won it then. We also showed fantastic courage and fight to come back in extra time.
Obviously I don’t know Jack Ross’s thinking but it seemed to me that the plan was to look after Will Grigg by replacing him with Power, then when he had got settled take off either Leadbitter or Cattermole and send on Charlie Wyke who was stripped and ready. The 4th official even had the board ready but James was obviously unable to continue, which scuppered that plan.
Full marks to JR for fielding his first choice XI. With 8 games in April looking after Grigg and Wyke will be crucial. We really didn’t need that extra 30 minutes. Hope Maguire will soon be back and that Wyke can start finding the net. Stanley, Rochdale and Burton must surely give him and Grigg a great opportunity to up their goal tally.
The inevitable question: having to choose, winning at Wembley or winning at Accrington? I would take Accrington.
I can see that it was his plan, I just see it as ridiculously defensive. It left no margin for error or further injury (as happened), left us completely unbalanced and a shambles for the last half hour when simply replacing Grigg with Wyke and the Catermole or Leadbitter with Power later would have done none of those!
Also, what does McGeough have to do to get a game ahead of Power. For some reasons the 3 sendings off seem to be still affecting him and he does very little to affect the game
Surely McGeouch will ask to leave in the summer. He has had no chances under Ross yet was seen as something of a marquee signing. Going back to yesterday, our subs never really affected the game. Wyke should have replaced Grigg to give us an out ball whilst we were still ahead. Also where were Honeyman and Wyke when the penalty list was being decided? Striker and captain should be first to volunteer or be nominated. Despite being a goal machine Cattermole should have been no higher than six. Only saving grace was that Vaughan never got on to haunt us. Onwards and upwards. Ha’way The Lads.
I thought replacing Grigg with Power was perfectly reasonable. We’d completely lost the midfield at that point so changing the striker would have made no difference whatsoever. We needed to try and get a foothold in the middle of the park for a bit and then Wyke could be brought on later. It could probably be argued that Power didn’t really help to shore up the midfield (and that maybe McGeouch would have been a better option) …. but everything is easy in hindsight.
As for the penalties …. just because someone is captain it doesn’t mean they’re one of the best five penalty takers. And as for Wyke …. I wouldn’t want him taking a penalty given his current form and confidence.
As a long time faithful to the Cattermole we bought years ago. Injuries aside, he has been a solid performer. I was on a journey to Norway today and missed a lot of what was happening.
Finals go one way or the other. We paid the price for not scoring more in the first half. And were unlucky. Unlike Liverpool today, in a similar situation.
Lee Cattermole was excellent throughout but as he followed McGeady for our 2nd pen 1I said to the charming Irishwoman next to me (her boyfriend is part of the SAFC coaching set up) ‘oh no, not what I wanted to see’. As Sixer said to me, it wasn’t so much a bad pen as a good save. So i am delighted to see Rob’s high mark