During the last century when I was a City Councillor back home the Labour Group had a large banner in its lounge proclaiming words of wisdom from the Leader of the Council who led the rebuilding of the City after the War: "Socialists shall be judged by their actions not their words".
Chris Coleman said before the game against Sheffield United that this was more important than the FA Cup Quarter Final. "Words". Words that were clearly cobblers when the team sheet revealed that our centre forward pairing was Eastwood and Simpson, (a pairing that had never started a game for the Sky Blues) rather than Best and Morrison which had been at the core of our recent good run. As Best was not on the bench he may have been injured and as I arrived at the Ricoh direct from London I have no idea what the pre-match news was. In any event the tone was set with the team seeming subdued and reticent.
Eastwood & Simpson (surely a gentlemen's outfitters from the 1920s) were as ineffectual as expected and it was only the introduction of Hillary in the second half that finally gave some oomph to our performance. By this time we were two-nil down. There will be many howls about the first goal in the last minute of first-half injury time which was awarded by the linesman when Westwood swore blind (at the cost of a yellow card) that he had saved the ball on the line. My first reaction was that it was a goal but from behind it is hard to tell (as I am sure at least one actress must have said to a member of the episcopacy at some point). What may get lost in the fuss is Vivienne's culpability when he came out too far for the ball allowing the attacker to chip the ball back into an untended goal area forcing a saving header on the line which led to the goal.
The crowd were livid about that and in the second half were further incensed when Gunner was booked for a fairly soft challenge after being on the receiving end of unpunished fouls. This rage was in full flow when Osborne (on for Danny Fox who looks to have injured himself whilst fouling and may miss the Quarter Final) was correctly judged to have fouled a Blade. From the resulting free kick the second goal was conceded when a bullet header at the far post gave Vivienne little chance (though some rather more forceful marking may have helped).
Most annoyingly despite our dysfunctional attack we ought to have scored twice by half-time- "I looked over Jordan" had two chances that he should have taken. In fact he also missed a third chance in the second half which would have resulted in an equaliser, Scott Dann having scored with a header from a superb Gunner throw to set up a last 20 minutes of hope.
As silver linings go a lack of over-confidence against Chelsea is pretty meagre.
Chris Coleman said before the game against Sheffield United that this was more important than the FA Cup Quarter Final. "Words". Words that were clearly cobblers when the team sheet revealed that our centre forward pairing was Eastwood and Simpson, (a pairing that had never started a game for the Sky Blues) rather than Best and Morrison which had been at the core of our recent good run. As Best was not on the bench he may have been injured and as I arrived at the Ricoh direct from London I have no idea what the pre-match news was. In any event the tone was set with the team seeming subdued and reticent.
Eastwood & Simpson (surely a gentlemen's outfitters from the 1920s) were as ineffectual as expected and it was only the introduction of Hillary in the second half that finally gave some oomph to our performance. By this time we were two-nil down. There will be many howls about the first goal in the last minute of first-half injury time which was awarded by the linesman when Westwood swore blind (at the cost of a yellow card) that he had saved the ball on the line. My first reaction was that it was a goal but from behind it is hard to tell (as I am sure at least one actress must have said to a member of the episcopacy at some point). What may get lost in the fuss is Vivienne's culpability when he came out too far for the ball allowing the attacker to chip the ball back into an untended goal area forcing a saving header on the line which led to the goal.
The crowd were livid about that and in the second half were further incensed when Gunner was booked for a fairly soft challenge after being on the receiving end of unpunished fouls. This rage was in full flow when Osborne (on for Danny Fox who looks to have injured himself whilst fouling and may miss the Quarter Final) was correctly judged to have fouled a Blade. From the resulting free kick the second goal was conceded when a bullet header at the far post gave Vivienne little chance (though some rather more forceful marking may have helped).
Most annoyingly despite our dysfunctional attack we ought to have scored twice by half-time- "I looked over Jordan" had two chances that he should have taken. In fact he also missed a third chance in the second half which would have resulted in an equaliser, Scott Dann having scored with a header from a superb Gunner throw to set up a last 20 minutes of hope.
As silver linings go a lack of over-confidence against Chelsea is pretty meagre.
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