Burton Albion v Torquay United 6th April 2009

Well done boys, fantastic job.

well done Roy Mac turning a great footballing side into a defensive flop. quite the opposite to what Leroy did to your old side ;D

no wonder Leroy was happy tonight

That has to go down as one of the most stupid observations of the season Dave!

A very good performance from the boys tonight. Nicky Wroe was outstanding in the first half - seemingly in front of the back for and supporting the front two in the blink of an eye - and Stevens' goal was top drawer. His tracking back throughout the game was none too shabby either. They were the star performers, but again the work rates of Hargreaves and the ever-retreating Sills were immense. Add to that Sturrock's work-rate in chasing down everything and they just couldn't get near us in that first half. We won virtually every first ball and most likely every single second ball there was to be had.

Second half and you were always expecting the 10 man home side to rally. That said, I felt our central defensive pairing restricted them to having a go from distance on most occassions and, as far as quality in the final third, it was us with the Wroe and Benyon chances that came nearest.

If we play like that in our next 5 games we will be Champions. Simple as that.

Looking forward to going to a couple of games in the next week or two. And the spreadsheet of who's playing who is back on the Chandler kitchen calendar.

Game on. ;D

What game were you watching Merse? during most of the second half we just hit long balls from the back, or maybe my TV was faulty and It just looked that way.

Burton passed the ball much better than we did in the second half and we did not look like we had the extra man, surely we should have been keeping hold of the ball better and making the extra man count?

This is not being negative after getting a fine win that our first half display won for us, just telling it how it was for the second half, but then you so often only want to see things through your eyes, maybe its time to go to Specsavers merse.

I would go along with that, Capitalgull - Wroe doesn't need to be bustling around the edge of the opponent's area, firing 40 yard shots or making killer passes to have a great game. I thought he swept-up with the minimum of fuss, provided an outlet for the defence and the flanks and played the simply ball that enabled possession.
That is the Nicky Wroe that I hoped we would see when he was out of the first team picture for a few games earlier in the season.
He seems to be playing deeper than he was in the first lengthy unbeaten run this season - on Saturday he had the same "quiet" but supremely effective game.

Robbo and Todd looked like they had played next to each other a hundred times before - just as they did on Saturday.
The right substitution (Hodges for Stevens) was made and we just slowed things down, kept the ball and finished the game off.

As for Sturrock and Sills - Paul Parker was correct in his observation as to the expansion of Sill's all-round game. His tracking-back and work was a constant thorn in the side of Burton. I would loved to have seen Sturrock's performance in person tonight - on Saturday much of the work he did was off the ball - making their defenders work even when he didn't have the ball - hopefully his hamstring is OK for the weekend (it seemed like it held-up OK tonight).

Burton are no mugs - even with 10 men they will be too much for most teams in this league. We were well on top before they went down to 10 - and the way we played against them was a masterclass - pulling them all over the pitch and making them do the work chasing.
In the second half, they had no way through our solid banks of 4 and despite sme pretty passing at times from McGrath, I never felt that they were allowed to test us much - thanks to the work-rate of the team. It was intevitible that Burton would ramp-up the pressure, but it would have taken a stroke of fortune for them to have gotten anything from the game.

Tonight the expansive football that we played was 10 times the performances that we witnessed at the end of last season. Going-in to the play-offs the football became disjointed and very tired.
Tonight's energy and confidence gives me real cause for optimism for the rest of the season. I think we will run-out of games and have too little margin for error, but I feel that this squad will challenge in the play-offs and shouldn't be scared of anyone.

"Hitting long balls from the back during most of the second half" isn't "lumping it forward all the time" though is it Dave?

Absorbing a determined assault on our goal and damaging the opposition by hitting balls into the space they leave behind them as they surge forward is not "lumping" it, it is (if you like) a "base tennis game" and if you read my summing up again you should note that I observed that with the replacement of Sturrock with Benyon the ball then failed to "stick" up front as it had done ~ that's what game I was watching....................and for the record, hitting long balls wasn't the ONLY tactic we employed so therefore it couldn't have been that we JUST hit them.

You say Burton passed the ball "better" than we did in the second half. Really, to what effect? How many challenging saves were required of OUR goalkeeper in that time then?

In a situation such as we found ourselves in during the second half ~ 1-0 up against ten men ~ one does not need to go chasing the game, rather get one's two lines of four behind the ball and ping them on the counter attack.................which was exactly how we played it.

I don't think anyone will come on here and support your statement that we were "lumping it forward all of the time" because it is simply inaccurate and untrue. That's not a case of watching a different game than you Dave, more a case of watching the same game through different eyes and with a different appreciation of how the game WAS played not how one thinks it SHOULD be played!

You must take on board, that a patient build up involving numerous passes made with the priority of keeping possession is NOT the same as passes made with the priority of creating chances to score. It's futile to play the first type of game when the second type is needed....................we allowed them to play the first game, we didn't allow them to play the second. We opted to play the game of hitting them on the break by hitting the ball into spaces left behind their advancing midfield, rather than the more risky strategy of trying to pass our way through their advancing and thus closing down midfield. I'd say that was pretty much on the button in the circumstances and the winning score of one nil to us proves that in my opinion!