Have penalty takers made life too complicated for themselves with stuttering run ups and the like?
Spot on.
I'm not clear when exactly the law changed. It used to be a run up with no pause and GK still on the line. Go back to that, run up, whack it in the corner of your choice. If the keeper is good enough to get down and across then he deserves to save it. Actually, I'd make the man fouled take the pen unless he is immediately subbed off injured.
Another unconvincing performance against a team destined to struggle this season, the fixture list turns somewhat more difficult between now and the end of September and the demands on the team will now confirm our real abilities.
We should be grateful to Robertson, Raggett and Bazunu, they stood firm when their colleagues so often faltered. Ogilivie and Freeman no more than workmanlike, Tunnicliffe and Morrell (so very disappointing) never in control, Adhadme and RHF peripheral, Marquis…..was Marquis, slow, inept, posing minimal threat.
I thought the game was, in many respects summed up by the fact that Close, (deemed not good enough for Pompey), was probably the most influential of the midfielders on display.
I note that fans appear to believe that Ben Thompson is not required at Fratton Park (Tunnicliffe v Thompson thread), hmmm, let’s wait and see, sterner tests lie ahead for our midfield.
Things did improve somewhat when Williams appeared and Ahadme came into the game more but William’s penalty was shockingly awful lacking power, direction and conviction.
I am uncomfortable with the fact that the Cowleys seem currently seem content to go through the season with Marquis, Harrison and Hurst as our strikers, goals win matches !
If it is true that DC is happy to see Johnson leave then I am disappointed, there are many less able players in our squad than Johnson and I doubt that Mnoga currently has the positional sense to play at right back for the first team if he is to be Freeman’s understudy.
Disappointing penalty costly 2 pts lost with a golden chance that we must make sure is taken in future.
When we give a penalty away it costs us.
Big DC fan but think he got it wrong today the midfield was overrun from the get go making it a very difficult afternoon for the forwards. We may have had the lion share of possession but failed in the last third because of it.
0-0 is a good result away and the team tried very hard can't fault that but we just don't know how good Donny is really or how bad we could have made them look.
Once we have ten games under our belts we can properly assess but it's obviously a good start with 2 concerns: goalscoring and the possibility that we've played four of the weak teams in the league.
as regards close being best. His problem was always that he could do it in odd games but not consistently. Agreed about assess after ten games. To me we look like a good defensive team who will score enough goals to get to the play offs. Cowley wants more and we will hav eto be patient while he builds towards that.
Still reckon our players are "too nice" in terms of appealing and intimidating opponents and officials.
For the disallowed Donny goal there was just a timid half-hearted appeal following the push by their player. Fortunately the ref spotted it.
When Williams took our penalty there was a Donny player clearly encroaching some 2 or 3 yards inside the box yet none of our players made a fuss about it.
Am not advocating a Joey Barton or Karl Robinson style of challenging everything but could do with our players being a little more streetwise.