Todays MOTM (4 Viewers)

[sw88]

Few candidates for me:

Platt - won pretty much everything, chased alot, helping out with defending, and good link up with Juke

Jutkiewicz - quiet first half but livened up in the 2nd. Great finish for the goal.

Keough - superb at the back once again.

Deegan - oh how we've missed him all the time he's been out

I could go on (and end up listing all players) but id say these stood out

 

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[SkyBlue_Bear83]

I thought Wood was brilliant, Miller is a very tough opponent to play against with pace and strength and Wood had him in his pocket for the majority of the game. Also Clingan was excellent breaking forward from his position on quite a few occasions, set piece delivery was generally good and a wonderful reverse pass to Hussey in the build up for the goal

 

[Sutty]

Richard Wood. I still think he's our best centre half and he showed why today. Unlucky not to score as well.

Also big credit to the 2 full backs, both outstanding in attack and defence.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Platt or Deegan for me. Deegan is fast shaping up into being one of my all-time fave Sky Blue players! I've been saying all season that rather than trying to describe what our midfield lacks, you'd do better to just say "Gary Deegan". Tackling, passing, energy and a goal threat. Certainly our best at closing down the opposition since Doyle, but with another half-a-dozen strings to his bow.

Platt was an absolute beast all game. Back to his best, but much more effective in this style of play. Shades of Adebola at times-and I do mean that as a compliment! Shame Juke didn't read the flicks-in fact I thought he was terrible first half and poor in the 2nd, but he never gave up trying his guts out and deserved his goal for that endeavour alone.

Also thought Thomas did some superb things-loved that crunching tackle first half. Wood was superb given his lack of match fitness, won everything in the air at the back.

 

[OyJimmy]

Cyrus Christie - is a quality player, best by a mile.

 

[brinner]

gota give it to juke tho wood was having a great game till he went off.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Richard Wood. I still think he's our best centre half and he showed why today. Unlucky not to score as well.

Also big credit to the 2 full backs, both outstanding in attack and defence.

Whereas I think he's a bit of a donkey but today he was back to the form he showed under Coleman and alongside McPake in that unbeaten run a few years back. He was like a different player entirely. He did almost gift them a goal in the first half, but then old habits die hard!

 

[Otis]

Yep, you missed Wood.

 

[TheRoyalScam]

Didn't see a weak performance from anyone - a solid and committed team effort with three of the back four my contenders for MOTM:

Hussey 8/10 - defended well and picked the right time to attack - his crossing is getting better too.
Wood 8/10 - considering he was coming back from injury he was simply a rock at the heart of the defence - won the battle with Miller, who is no mug.
Christie 8/10 - hard to criticize when you remember he's still a teenager - a sublime cross for the goal - if it would have been Beckham to Cole the press would have been creaming their pants over it.

If I have a slight criticism of Keogh, it is that he doesn't play the offside trap well enough, and is often playing the last attacker 'on'.
However like the rest of the team he gets a solid 7/10 - the 2nd half performance was a distinct improvement after we were slightly over-run in midfield during the 1st half.

Onwards and upwards.........

 

[covcity4life]

deegan? he gave the ball away so many times 2nd half,may have been tiredness but sitll MOTM?!

platt worked hard but nothing special

id give it to wood or keough personnaly,probably wood.

 

[Paxman II]

Considering his fitness level and who he had as an opponent today in Miller, he wins it for me. Very nearly scored too don't forget.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

It's weird, a few of them would have got 4 or 5 first half but 7's 2nd. Not Deegan, Platt or Wood though. Over-all, the team came out and played like they'd just had the mother of all team-talks-and with guys like Wood and Deegan in the side and vocal, Thorn had men there that would have dragged the others along with them. I think we underestimate Platts' character, too-he interviews like an extremely intelligent bloke indeed, and he read that game superbly the way he played the Forest defence. I can't help but think that having these 3 more experienced players in the dressing room at half-time-(passionate and hard-workers all of them, too)- would have made AT's job so much easier than any other time this season.

I do still worry about Cyrus defensively, but that cross really did define the phrase "Beckham-esque"! Perfect, almost impossible to defend against. I love the way in which we took that throw in quickly, no hesitation, like a well-oiled machine. The Cyrus-Platty combo at long-throws was also incredibly effective. Every single one of them caused mayhem today-at least 3 good ones that I can recall.

 

[Tankie]

Well lads, you've just about named the whole team, which in my opinion is just about right, but I will also throw David Bells name into the mix as well, he contributed another hard working performance, and it would be unfair to single him out by omission.
After a lack lustre first half, in which Forest settled into playing foot ball with more flair than the sky blues and looked the better side,whereas the Sky Blues, lacked continuity in possesion, giving the ball away and playing that awful long ball stuff to Platt, which was coming to nothing,It wasn't looking good at this stage, and it was good to reach half time on equal footing to a more imaginative forest team.
Whatever was said or drunk, at half time, transformed the Sky Blues into a more determined outfit altogether, the work rate seemed to double, as they denied Forest space to play in with tenacious, harrying of the man in posession, the Sky Blues went into overdrive and took control of the game, jukie scored with a powerful header, and the whole team came together as unit, and were a pleasure to watch.
The last Half hour or so were a little backs to the wall, as forest threw everything at us, but the defence stood solid
And we held out for a deserved three points.
Well played lads, and the bloke who aint got no air.
Tankie ...Block 18

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Well lads, you've just about named the whole team, which in my opinion is just about right, but I will also throw David Bells name into the mix as well, he contributed another hard working performance, and it would be unfair to single him out by omission.
After a lack lustre first half, in which Forest settled into playing foot ball with more flair than the sky blues and looked the better side,whereas the Sky Blues, lacked continuity in possesion, giving the ball away and playing that awful long ball stuff to Platt, which was coming to nothing,It wasn't looking good at this stage, and it was good to reach half time on equal footing to a more imaginative forest team.
Whatever was said or drunk, at half time, transformed the Sky Blues into a more determined outfit altogether, the work rate seemed to double, as they denied Forest space to play in with tenacious, harrying of the man in posession, the Sky Blues went into overdrive and took control of the game, jukie scored with a powerful header, and the whole team came together as unit, and were a pleasure to watch.
The last Half hour or so were a little backs to the wall, as forest threw everything at us, but the defence stood solid
And we held out for a deserved three points.
Well played lads, and the bloke who aint got no air.
Tankie ...Block 18

I wouldn't say Forest played with imagination or flair they were very poor through out. The first half was poor game to watch for both sides neither side deserved to be winning at half time, second half we dominated the opposition for 40 mins and defended brilliantly for the rest of the game + injury time.

 

[pusbccfc]

How many energy drinks did platt have today:O!!
Chased a lot down and for his size and age he was pretty quick.
I have notice if you put a through ball over the top to him, although he's not the quickest its very hard to defend against, cause of his mass strength.
Well done platt

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I wouldn't say Forest played with imagination or flair they were very poor through out. The first half was poor game to watch for both sides neither side deserved to be winning at half time, second half we dominated the opposition for 40 mins and defended brilliantly for the rest of the game + injury time.

Agreed with that, but also agreed with Tankie that 2nd half was a transformation. Did Thorn give them some of Getafixs' Magic Potion's? :thinking about:

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

How many energy drinks did platt have today:O!!
Chased a lot down and for his size and age he was pretty quick.
I have notice if you put a through ball over the top to him, although he's not the quickest its very hard to defend against, cause of his mass strength.
Well done platt

He just sticks his arse in the way, and they can't get round him to the ball!

Do you know, I don't think he ever received a ball to feet during Boothroyds' tenure.

 

[bobbymac]

I think it was a good team effort. With our squad we must learn to defend first and we did that. Forest, on paper, are a good team and we coped with them. I thought Platt was good and believe he would do well alongside Coby. Of course we can't do without Juke but it's good to have options. Midfield also we coped well and having Deegan on board is like a new signing but for me I think Clingan was MOTM because he goes about his task as captain admirably. You don't have to be the star of the team but the rock. Clingan is one of the best captains we have had for a long time.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I thought Clingans' distribution was shocking first half, but miles better in the 2nd. He even crossed the half-way line a few times other than corners for a change, too! But I don't think he was close to fully fit, maybe about 85% in FM terms.

 

[stupot07]

quite a few candidates today, especially with the second half performance but i think i'm going to give it to Wood as he was outstanding when you consider he's been out for so long.

also there were quite a few sensible calls on CWR and as someone said man for man Forest have better players than us but we were a better team today. Every player was at least a 7 today.

as a side note i'd love to see the player stats for today, Conor Thomas covered so much ground today he was like a man possessed.

 

[wingy]

I' m going to give it hussey ,this is for man of the match ,cos today he was a man ,not a boy,well done all and my prediction was bang on, forrest are going to need time to become a team , their dressing room is not united, i think some are being over negative about the first half ,once we got past 15 -20 mins we were fine .second half we were absolutely buzzing,till the injuries halted the momentum,great ref today as well ,i'd like one like him every week.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Good point on the ref

It was nice to not see free kicks given for minimal contact over and over again, football is a physical sport.

 

[sw88]

.......believe he would do well alongside Coby.

Jones??

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

as a side note i'd love to see the player stats for today, Conor Thomas covered so much ground today he was like a man possessed.

He was superb, as I thought he was against Blackpool. He's pretty big and strong for a lad of his age, and doesn't lack confidence. Played a couple of sublime little passes, and came in and joined in with the deeper midfield 3 when required but not to excess. Was unlucky with the shot cleared off the line. And did everyone see the fantastic off-the-ball run he made into a goalscoring position before Bells' stinging shot? Dragged men away and opened up a bit of space for Bell just perfectly.

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Great to see positives on the players today, what about AT role in getting the players up for the match !!!

 

[stupot07]

Good point on the ref

It was nice to not see free kicks given for minimal contact over and over again, football is a physical sport.

the linesman on the Tesco stand side was awful though, gave dubious throw ins 3 or 4 times when the ball didn't go out. the worst was in the second half when mcgugan walked away from the ball on the line then the lino decided to give it 2 or 3 seconds later.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I'd give AT 10/10 for both his handling of the pre-match media shitstorm and half-time team-talk. His subs were spot on, too.

 

[Otis]

I'd give AT 10/10 for both his handling of the pre-match media shitstorm and half-time team-talk. His subs were spot on, too.

Yes, the way he switched Murphy for Dunn was pure genius!!

 

[sw88]

the linesman on the Tesco stand side was awful though, gave dubious throw ins 3 or 4 times when the ball didn't go out. the worst was in the second half when mcgugan walked away from the ball on the line then the lino decided to give it 2 or 3 seconds later.

what about when Juke 'kept the ball in'?? I thought it had gone and the Forest players were adament it did, but lino was behind with play so i can only assume he was too far behind to see, and couldnt flag if he wasnt sure?? Either way, it was good pressure from Juke!

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

the linesman on the Tesco stand side was awful though, gave dubious throw ins 3 or 4 times when the ball didn't go out. the worst was in the second half when mcgugan walked away from the ball on the line then the lino decided to give it 2 or 3 seconds later.

He was shocking. Got nearly every single call wrong, and was caught ball-watching on a few offside calls where he seemed to make decisions based on crowd and player reactions. At one point, the red mist collectively descended over our stand to the point where I thought one of the fans was going to vault the advertising hoardings and lamp him!

I thought the ref was appalling in terms of shirt-pulling, though. Forest got away with murder, and we should have conceded a pen ourselves for it first half. But the worst offender by far was Wes Morgan. At one point he actually had both arms around a City players' waist, and yet no FK. There was another incident where Sammy played a long pass into the corner of the area, and Lukas couldn't even jump for it because the defender had his arms all over him. It was just so obvious that the ref had set the standard early-"I won't give fouls for shirt-pulling"-that the Forest players just kept doing it. An absolutely horrible football team to watch. Cloughie will be spinning in his grave.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Yes, the way he switched Murphy for Dunn was pure genius!!

Ok, duh..but he brought Gael on at the right time, and by saving the 3rd one he has obviously learnt from the Barnsley game.

 

[Otis]

Yep.

Wonder what else he may have tinkered with and changed if the Murphy incident hadn't occurred.