Nothings going our way at the moment.The
best 45 minutes of football since before Xmas and at the end of it
Rennie gives a dodgy penalty and the game drifts away.
Promising team selection at the start. Formation back to
4-4-2 with Viduka and Smith upfront, Matteo back where he belongs
alongside Caldwell at the back and Domi replacing Harte in defence.
It made an immediate difference. Viduka was getting the
ball fired at him from all sorts of angles, but he holds it up well and
with Smith up with him wasn't constantly outnumbered. Viduka's first
touch is miles better than Smith's and with some confidence that we'd
hold onto the ball, Pennant, Milner and Bakke were much quicker to get
forward in support. Smith was able to play facing goal and linked up
well with Pennant at time, but we never got the killer cross in to make
a goal. Closest we game was when Milner headed against the bar from a
free-kick.
It wasn't all plain sailing of course, one great saving
header from Caldwell saved us after Villa had hit the bar and Angel took
to long when in space on the edge of the area and got crowded out.
However, in general we were the better team in the first half and looked
more likely to score.
Unfortunately the ref then intevened, firstly Mellberg
got away with a tackle on Milner that would probably have got him booked
if he hadn't been already, then soon after Vassell out-paced Matteo to a
through-ball and tumbled as Domi came across the area and tackled him.
We were 100 yards away, but it looked like the ball changed direction
from when we were as Domi made the tackle and Domi's reaction also
showed that it wasn't a pen. Maybe Rennie also thought so cos he just
booked Domi who was clearly the last man when he made the tackle. Angel
but the penalty away and all our good work had amounted to nothing.
Apart from the dodgy decision, the penalty also showed
that Villa had one great advantage over us, pace in attack. The only
time we got behind the defence, Viduka had to hold up and fell over
whilst trying to beat the defender again. Viduka showed his frustration
by throwing the ball at the ref as he blew for the half-time whistle and
was lucky to not get punished.
Second half we battled on but never made many real
chances - the penalty seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of us and
a second goal from poor marking form a free-kick effectively finished
the game. Viduka hit the bar from 30 yards and Lennon came on as sub
(surprisingly for Pennant) and had a deflected cross well saved by
Sorenson.
The other results went for us and the gap is still
bridgeable but we are running out of game. Stating the obvious but a win
against Wolves on Tuesday is imperative. Play like we did first half and
we have a chance.
