vs. Stalybridge

[tim]

1-0 City HT (Craig Wilding 21)

[tim]

2-0 George Clegg 52

Danny came off at half time and was replaced by Youth Team keeper Michael Wright. Recurrence of the old injury? Must have been a gamble playing him as Wright was on the bench.

[tim]

2-1 now with 16 to go. We've had 5 players booked

[tim]

Final score 2-1 to City.

[countryman]

Hit and miss performance not helped by a useless referee.
The result was great but again they failed to impress.

[wakefield]

Oh FFS!!!

It's 3 points against a quality side...WELL DONE Barty, Stanty, Carts and the Team!!

"They failed to impress" - Stalybridge presumably?

[gobby cow]

countryman said:

Hit and miss performance not helped by a useless referee.
The result was great but again they failed to impress.

What game were you at???

I was dead impressed by the spirit shown on that pitch today. Smudger and Cleggy were brilliant. Everyone pulled their weight. Great to see Paul Carty hug young Mike who played a blinder in goal.

Keep it up lads!

[blackpole]

Don't know hat you're looking for countryman, but the sheer effort and commitment of the whole team was excellent. Referre totally useless, and City were playing him as well as a very physical Celtic. I reckon Cleggy was out to prove my comments about him wrong, and TODAY he did ... I even saw him sprint once! Took his goal weel, and work rate was good. I still think he's an expensive luxury, and I'll go along with GC's comment about playing to impress other teams. Price at times looked not quite with the pace, but a bit more coaching and he could become the finished article! All we'll need then is forwards who can get to some of his clearances! Well done City.

[StopfordianWCFC]

countryman said:

Hit and miss performance not helped by a useless referee.
The result was great but again they failed to impress.

A very committed performance from a dogged City side who clearly valued the three points. Not a classic display by any means and to be honest we were holding on for the last 25 minutes. But to be fair to the young keeper he held his nerve, when others, most notably the ref, were losing theirs.

Stalybridge were a useful outfit - but jeez their defence was terrible. They gifted us three early cracking chances and we should have been out of sight after 10 minutes. It was keystone cops from them most of the afternoon - I think they played more great through balls to Craig Wilding than our team!

Danks getting injured was a blow, but we soldiered on and just about deserved to be leading at the break. After the break Cleggy (who was a much improved player from last week) produced the quality that we know he has and the movement that we would all like to see more of, to scuttle in the from the left and bend an exqusite outside of the boot shot into the corner of the net. Celtic were not happy that we appeared to be ignoring an injured man on the ground, but he wasn't in a life threatening condition!

After that, it was pretty much the alamo as Celtic poured forward and City backpedalled. Celtic had all the ball, lots of chances and fortunately only scored one. Good saves from our lad. The ref also helped spice things up with a niggly performance where you started to feel it was only a matetr of time before he ripped off his black shirt to reveal and orange jersey whilst simulatneously rising like a salmon at a corner to score for Celtic himself.

Lets be honest a good three points, but a performance that shows that whilst the spirit is there, we are still a team with "work in progress" written all over it. Again, I fear that a team with a really decent midfield would have made us pay over the last quarter of the match - but who cares today, lets enjoy it.

Well done the players, you were all up for it and that is all we can ask. Smith, Clarke, Khan and Price IMHO were all excellent in the face of the constant pressure at the end.

Well done the management for instilling some belief in the players!

[wakefield]

Cheers Manc. Useful Report.

[andy]

Interesting game. I felt Staly's dominance in the last 20 matched City's in the first 20 of the second half (during which only a superb save prevented City extending their lead further). The point being, we defended better under pressure.

Well done, lads. Great goal, Cleggy.

Unfortunately at a high cost - four players out, as a result?

[prestonwcfc]

Thought we played really well today.

Price, Clegg were both immense, but I would give MOTM to the young keeper. Nervous at the start punching that cross but made 3 superb stops, esp the one s from distance and the header .

At last a city team with some passion and fight, well done Barty.

Now all we need is a decent referee !

[tim]

There aren't decent refs at this level. Sad but true. Any remotely decent refs get shifted upwards pretty quickly, and it's no better in the Conference. Look how that buffoon Trevor Kettle is now in the league, getting crucified every week. And as for Stephen Bratt.......

[Deleted]

A solid performance, and everyone looked comfortable in the positions they were given to play in. No silly wing-backs getting stuck out of position up the field, no long balls being played in from the flanks from the halfway line, two strong banks of 4 which defended well when Stalybridge threw in the kitchen sink. Bad news when Danksy went off, Webster looks like he's carrying a fair bit of timber (and he's not the only one, fitness seems to have gone down since the Mick Tuohy workouts!!)
As for the ref, okay he was whistle happy, and he was one of those who doesn't like too much contact, but you can't argue with the bookings, two of which wouldn't have happened if players had just walked away, and other refs would have given Macca a second yellow card. And also other refs may have held up the game for the injured player in the move which led to our second goal, but he let play carry on quite rightly.
Work to do for Barty and Stanty (who does a great "one man and his dog" impersonation with his whistling to the players) and Mancs right, midfield is in need of more quality.

[prestonwcfc]

Brooky - The ref certainly didn't allow any contact with that challenge on Danny in the first half !!!

[Tony is not to despondent now.]

Well, two lucky goals. One a defensive mistake, which Wilding did well to score from, and the second was surely meant as a cross by Clegg, but a goal all the same. Clegg seemed to slip out of sight in the game at times.

City managed to win despite the referee's efforts to sabotage their efforts. He also missed the fowl on McDonnell, who was hit in the air by a Stalybridge forward.

But didn't young Wright do well in the second half. He made some very good saves. It looks as if the City have found a good substitute for the goakeeping position.

But Webster didn't make an impression when he came on for Danks. He seemed to run after the ball and not to it. Certainly a player not worth his coin.

A lot of short comings in the side. I haven't seen them since August but they seem to have gone back not forward. Oh, dear!!!

[Deleted]

prestonwcfc said:

Brooky - The ref certainly didn't allow any contact with that challenge on Danny in the first half !!!

I don't remember Danny needing any treatment for an injury, or even a hold up in play at all. Did I also miss it? together with everyone behind the goal at the far end?

[steve89]

It was when he saved a header from one of their players. The bloke hit a good header straight at him and he caught it but took most of the shock on his shoulder. This was quite early on in the game and he seemed in quite a lot of pain straight away..

Steve

[StopfordianWCFC]

The problem with the ref was that he was far too fussy. Any slight contact and he blew for a free kick, which meant even a robust 'fair' challenge illicited the whistle.

This meant defending anything was nigh on impossible. I remember him blowing when Jamie Price simply stood his ground under a high ball with his arms by his side. Even the Celtic players seemed mistified by that one. Also I thought Macca's second heavy tackle was a cracking 'ball first' tackle and was amazed the ref blew.

I think Barty was spot on with his aftermatch analysis of the game on the radio. Its refreshing to hear a manager say exactly what he thinks of a performance without being burdened with the pressure of worrying about his job.

[Deleted]

Agreed Manc - fussy and whistle happy. Maccas second challenge looked like one of those where the ball had been taken, but the tackle was from behind, and you cannot tackle from behind anymore, however clean.
Agreed also, its sad that managers can no longer tell it as it is in interview for fear of getting sacked. What must amaze Barty is that the team really is no better than it was when he left.

[colinlayland]

jcp said:

prestonwcfc said:

Brooky - The ref certainly didn't allow any contact with that challenge on Danny in the first half !!!

I don't remember Danny needing any treatment for an injury, or even a hold up in play at all. Did I also miss it? together with everyone behind the goal at the far end?

Yes you did miss it,he was given treatment,during play, it was a ice pack or something similar was put on his shoulder.

[countryman]

Failed to impress.
This means that although the effort was there we still played to deep, gave the ball alot of height only for Celtic to be given the opportunity to attack again and again.
In the first ten minutes we had to two chances to play the ball square to be in on goal, Danks to Ward and Webster to Colley, both missed chances.
There were a lot of times when we just sat back and let Celtic attack.
The young keeper had a postive game along with Price and both look useful for the future.
All we need is a midfield grafter who will run and run...

[wh]

the problem is that it appears that the emphasis has been on players who can play at the back and can bring the ball forward if (?) needed.

The midfield has by and large been an after thought the result is that we have too many players who can perform well at the back but are not as comfortable in midfield.

Take Wardy for instance, he was great at right back last season then we get Clarke who is equally as good and Ward has played like a fish out of water in the midfield.

I think the new boss will have his work cut out to reshape the team as we have some really good players but the bulk of them play at the back.

We have a forwarding line up of 2 injured players and one who is living of former glory so its no real surprise that we play too deep.

[prestonwcfc]

steve89 said:

It was when he saved a header from one of their players. The bloke hit a good header straight at him and he caught it but took most of the shock on his shoulder. This was quite early on in the game and he seemed in quite a lot of pain straight away..

Steve

And was bundled into the net !

[B*ue dragonstander]

A great 3 points. Sure we might have played better .. and also worse! Michael Wright take a bow. Three really first class saves that I can recall easily. Well played that man!

[Tim Munslow]

I thought that the 4-4-2 system was far more entertaining; in fact I enjoyed that game more than any I've seen this season I think. Great to watch and I now have very short finger nails.