Vital Verdict – AFCB v Hull City

Written by kirsikka

The last-minute defeat last week shouldn’t detract from the much-improved performance on show at times. Today we eschewed the slow start we often see to instead put the boot on Hull’s neck right from the start.

Parker looked to switch up the lineup and it certainly added some energy to proceedings. The first 45 is much more like how we should be approaching a good number of games. A shame it wouldn’t go in but the principle remains. More attacking intent like that, please.

Starting the second half with numerous dodgy passing at the back gave them a real filip and a way into the game. Not ideal.

The first half was 45 minutes of shirt tugging and niggly play from them which the ref consistently ignored. The second was time-wasting from them on an epic scale, which he also ignored. An awayer if there is such a thing when it comes to refs. Ruined a lot of the game as a spectacle.

Hull’s player of the match – their physio. I don’t know how he managed to resuscitate basically the whole Hull team throughout the match but well done to him.

Plus point to the 4th official for ignoring the madness the ref was letting them get away with and adding nine minutes. Shame we didn’t do anything with the time.

Well played:
Davis – Having looked a little lost earlier in the season this was a dynamic performance, both going forward and defensively. May actually have given Parker a decision to make next week

Marcondes – Intelligent use of space and the fulcrum around which our first half domination pivoted. Very unlucky not to score and definitely showed what it is he offers today.

Room for improvement:

Billing – the poorest of the attacking players. Even when we were dominating in the first half his touch wasn’t great. The less said about his second half the better.

The defence – Still looking nothing like as secure as a unit compared to earlier in the season. There wasn’t a lot of attacking threat from Hull but when it showed they looked shaky.

Parker has worked to do. It’s been a horrendous run of results for a team chasing promotion. The performance might have been there, first half at least, but it’s starting to get to the point when we need to start seeing the points.

NWCherries98 wrote…

Thought the first half was pretty good overall. Dominated the play and created lots of chances. The second half, abysmal. Some thoughts:

– Travers’ handling and presence in dealing with crosses has improved, I don’t personally see any real flaws in his game now. Top, top keeper.

– Stacey I thought looked better overall…but the goal also come from his side- again. Haven’t seen it back yet but it’s worrying how many goals come against the right.

– Mepham was near faultless, quick to move the ball on, had good positioning, agile. Shame he had to go off.

– Kelly stood up to Eaves well and made him look very ordinary. Not much to say other than that, solid performance.

– Cahill had one of his poorer games for us, really looked sluggish and a little off to me.

– Davis’ best performance since the 4-0 against Swansea, strong in the air, good tackling, dangerous crosses. Shouldn’t have come off.

– Lerma was okay. Got stuck in a fair bit, lots of bad passes though. Should be dominant against teams like this but he just isn’t.

– Christie just isn’t a goal threat and he’s not really providing chances for other players now either. Is great for little flashes of brilliance on the halfway line atm and little else.

– Marcondes…maybe I’m missing something but I must’ve seen a different game to everyone else. Decent first half but lots of loose passes, getting caught on the ball, unnecessary fouls, and slowing the game right down. He plays with his back to play like he’s a striker but on the halfway line.

– Billing had a strong first half, glueing together all of our play, and then one of his tempestuous displays in the second. The crowd is very quick to get on his back and I think it affects his performances.

– Lowe was barely involved, barely linked up with Davis and barely created anything of note. We looked much better when Anthony came on (until they scored). Poor.

– Solanke didn’t have one of his best games. Didn’t really hold the ball up, never got on the end of many teasing crosses. Needs competition?

– Anthony was good until they took the lead, and then he was barely in the game. Immediately added some spark and guile but this wasn’t matched by the rest of our forward.

– Rogers came on for Davis and played around 15 minutes of football. He was on the pitch. – Join the conversation, click here.

Monmouthred said…

That second half ‘performance’ by Billing was just shocking, epitomised in the last few minutes, when he virtually walked from the corner flag in front of away fans, whilst we had the ball.

Apoplectic at him, but he wasn’t alone in that second half.
Cahill put in a performance for the second week running, that if it had been Mepham, we wouldn’t have stopped hearing about it. Mepham had been playing really well. The tempo was great, all that stopped when Cahill came on. He must have it in his contract, he must play his pass to Kelly, because 95% of the time, that’s what he does.

Stacey and Christie, couldn’t have put in any more effort. Davis also until he went off, I think that’s where it ended to be honest. Not sure about Solanke, couldn’t really tell, from Ted Mac, but I suspect he became very isolated. He has done very well this season, but once again he missed very easy chances in the first half.

12 points from 12 games. That’s our reality. Maintain that and we would only end the season on 68 points and not even make play offs.

Definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.

Right now I am asking myself, on what basis we should expect to achieve more than that.

The positive was Scott Parker afterwards. Talk is cheap, so we’ll see, but he certainly inferred he had seen enough of repetition from some players.

He talked about the time for action, so hopefully, that will be the change required, to alter our trajectory.

Critical month coming up. Good job we traditionally win every game in February… – Join the conversation, click here.

Matt Stevenson added…

Here’s the timeline, I doubt it will tell you much that you didn’t already know. I was listening to Solent’s commentary where it seemed obvious that it was a game of two halves.

In the first half, we created lots of chances, Solanke having a shot blocked in the 4th minute (about 1 in 8) then Dom had the clearest chance of the match with a header put wide of the left post (just over 2 in 5). Marcondes, (15th, 17th and 31st mins), Solanke (17th and 43rd mins) also had attempts rated around 1 in 10 as we had total control of the game. Hull’s first shots were in the 44th min when both Longman and Smallman had low percentage chances.

At the interval, Hull came out firing for 5 mins, before they reverted to hoping for a smash and grab. There was some pressure at that time but no real chances. Meanwhile, AFCB had lost our mojo with the game petering out, the first danger for Hull was a Solanke header rated as 1 in 33. As we’ve seen historically, not taking your early chances can lead you open to a sucker punch, which is exactly what happened with Longman firing in from a tough position (rated 1 in 16). Getting robbed in this way wasn’t the worst thing for me, we all know it happens, but the lack of response was very concerning. We created only one chance in over 20 minutes after we went behind and only 2 in the second half. There was no siege, no pressure, no last-ditch Hull defending, the game just limped to a dull conclusion. – Join the conversation, click here.