Re: Focus!

By SteveHFC11/9/2016 19:56Sun Sep 11 19:56:12 2016In response to Re: Focus!

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First up - the referee. Most of you know I'm usually the first to defend officials - but he had a shocker! My gut feeling when the penalty was awarded was that he'd got it wrong - and the highlights back that view up, so I have sympathy with Met Police for being upset with him.

However, that didn't excuse their continued moaning and dissent, and they only have themselves to blame to end up with 6 players booked and a £500 fine.

We clearly noted that moaning at the referee wasn't going to get us anywhere - and whilst we had 4 booked - 2 were for fouls - I'll never have an issue with yellows for fouls, 1, that I thought was justified, I'm told by others with a better view was harsh at best, and 1 that was complete nonsense as by then the referee had completely lost the plot.

Positives for me were the way we kept battling to the end once again - there was a real determination not to let the three points slip after Niko's goal (which was very well taken), and also that such a young side is now starting to produce the results that pre-season was promising. That said, I don't think it's a complete coincidence that we're unbeaten since Kevin Maclaren came back to the side.

Agree about our defending so deep - not sure why we're doing that, but I doubt its intentional, and I was getting very frustrated about the number of free kicks we gave away rather too close to our goal for my liking. It was inevitable that their goal would come from one eventually. Our defending generally seems pretty solid - our defending from set pieces needs some work.

I know I've not seen much over the past couple of years - but I suspect that's a game that we would have lost last season.

Be interesting to see how many changes there are on both sides on Tuesday.