Ah well, at least we know who we’re bound to play against if we manage to get into the play-offs. We just seem to be unable to beat or even draw with this lot. I started the day thinking I really wouldn’t be that bothered if we get knocked out of the cup (and I’m not) so I thought the day couldn’t cheese me off too much. I forgot about things like injuries and suspensions (the latter arising from this game). Bugger.
We stuck to the 4-4-2 rather than go back to the 4-5-1. We didn’t really play a typical cup “weakened” team in any sense. Fulup didn’t get a chance in goal and although Jonny Evans got a start Carlos Edwards didn’t. None of the returned loanees made it to the starting line-up (no surprise – who the hell wants to see Tommy Miller for example) although Clive Clarke made it as far as the bench.
The day had started with heavy rain and there was still a light trickle as we made our way down the hill from the Royal Garrison to the ground. Preston’s is a nice ground but with one whole side missing. I wonder when they intend to redevelop that? It is a pity we keep being rubbish there as the away end is great. Given the massive drop in popularity of the FA Cup over the last couple of decades we had a great following – making up well over a quarter of the attendance of 10,000. While again there was no reward in terms of actual goals (or to be honest even moments where you went “ooh, that was nearly a goal”) this was a massive improvement on the 4-1 drubbing a couple of months ago – and personally I thought an improvement on last week’s home defeat.
We started pretty well and looked the better team. We were attacking the opposite end though and I was fairly near the front so I’m not sure how close some of our domination was to actually producing a goal. Ormerord then got a clear position in the inside right channel but chipped it over Ward and well, well wide. Well, we won’t get caught out like that again I thought, ignoring the experience of 40 odd years of watching SAFC get caught out by the exact thing we shouldn’t.
Somewhere in amongst this lot Liam Miller went in to tackle, over in our right back position, and made a bit of a hash of it. You’d struggle to put it into the top ten worst tackles in the game as a whole but definitely a free kick. For some reason the ref goose-stepped his way over and booked Miller. Does anyone know why refs do that when they are going to book someone? The goose step hardly has a great history and is not a look you’d think someone would want to acquire. Anyhow, suddenly showing the experience of 40 odd years of watching SAFC I had the unfortunate foresight to say, “oh god, we hardly can afford our tackling central midfielder to be on a booking”.
We then went back to the business of giving Ormerord clear chances. We lost the ball in central midfield (Liam Miller I read in another slightly more professional report) and the ball was sliced very nicely through to Ormerord this time in the inside left channel but further out. According to Keano we tried to play the offside trap. It looked more like Varga was trying to play Kerplunk to me. In a split second Ward had to make a decision and he decided to play rushy goalies. Probably the wrong decision – but no criticism from me for him doing it. I’ve had overnight to think about it and know what the consequences were. Like I say, he had a split second. Anyway, Ormerord was around Ward. Evans got back to cover the goal line but Ormerord’s shot this time was perfectly executed and curled round Evans and into the far corner (from him – the near corner to where we were).
This wasn’t the kick in the teeth it might have been earlier in the season as you thought we could recover from this. However, a little later one of their strikers (think it might have been Nugent) made a dangerous break out left and Miller, chasing him, decided to bring him down. It was dangerous but there were other defenders rushing back (well in the oil tanker leaving port fashion in Varga’s case – but the others were rushing). God only knows what young Liam was thinking. This definitely was a booking and so he was off.
I was not too impressed with Miller when he first came and it was no surprise when he was dropped. However, I think he has been excellent since he came back into the team. For me by far the worst aspect of this match is that Miller’s good run of form gets interrupted with the risk that he doesn’t pick it up again when he manages to get back into the team.
The second half we pushed them really hard and you’d have struggled to realise we were down to 10 men. We still have this thing though that domination of the ball up to the goal is not turning into enough “oohh” type efforts where you think we’re just about to score. I am not persuaded by OPTA stats of shots on goal – a lot of shots are no more dangerous than a back pass.
As regular readers will know the vagaries of HertsVision mean my opinion of the match tend to be dominated by the players playing right in front of me. The away end is positioned such that we were looking straight down our right wing. I have to say I thought Dean Whitehead was superb. He was meant to be playing at right back but he got up and down the pitch a million times and was often playing right back and right winger simultaneously – single handedly making up for our one man deficit.
On the other hand when Carlos Edwards came on with half an hour to go I had quite a different opinion. His first contribution was excellent sending in a dangerous quick cross into the box. But that was it. I’ve read some reports saying either he was “canny” or he looked “nervous”. I can’t see where canny came from and I’d look nervous if I played as pap as him. He had no positional sense (OK positions are always going to be tricky when you’re a man down but even so). His control was adequate at best (isn’t that meant to be a winger’s strongest skill?). He looked quickish but not the speed monster we’d been told about. His judgment on when to release the ball and when to attack with it was awful. I suppose the good thing was that in only 30 minutes he was involved so much. Don’t get me wrong I am not writing the lad off and I wouldn’t even vaguely try to extrapolate from this to how he might be for us generally but I see no point in trying to pretend he was canny just because he is the shiny new expensive signing.
Right near the end we thought we’d snatched it. There was a scramble in the box which Elliott from inside the 6 yard box did well to knock back to Connolly just outside. With the goaly stranded Connolly smacked it to the right side and it was in. But from somewhere a defender, struggling to his feet from the mêlée with Elliott, got in the way (he might even have had his back to the ball – he certainly didn’t know what was going on) and the ball bounced off him – instead of into the net it curved off for a corner. Damn.
Anyway that’s our FA Cup run for the 2006-07 season. I suppose at least it was more enjoyable than our Carling Cup run.
John aka Herts