Tonight’s guest reporter is LondonRoad.net stalwart Hugh Janus:
The first half was depressing. It was like watching a re-run of us being given a football lesson by West Brom. Scunthorpe could trap the ball and pass it to their own players – we were capable of doing neither. The only surprise was that their goal took as long to come as it did. The only bright moments were one or two nice touches from Whelpdale and some cool headed play from Coutts. Most of the clearances out of defence were panic stricken and the negative passing became infuriating.
I think a few eyebrows were raised when Tom Williams was brought on, but I think he was one of the main reasons why the game changed out of all recognition. The other reason was that it suddenly became obvious that Ferguson banned Keates from taking any more corners in favour of Coutts; in fact Coutts had to run across the field at one point to take successive corners from different sides of the pitch.
Coutts was having an excellent game and when he started to break forward, Boyd was also getting more opportunities. He wasn’t as influential as he can be, but with Coutts, Whelpdale and Williams all providing some decent balls, we suddenly became much more of a threat. Some of our clearances were still awful, but we were getting lucky bounces of the ball far more than in the first half and at times, Scunthorpe must have wondered what had hit them.
Even so, we still looked worryingly vulnerable to long ball tactics, something that has become a bit of a recurring problem this season. I have to feel sorry for Torres in a way, but he just didn’t make enough of an impact to make himself an automatic choice for the starting line-up. If only Williams could be as effective as that in every game.
So, Saturday. Cobblers. It’s going to be massive.
Tags: League One, Scunthorpe Utd