1. What a gnawingly frustrating evening Saturday proved to be. City haven’t looked as lacking in fluency as that in any game this season. There’s no obvious explanation either. Sheffield Wednesday obviously performed very well, but City anywhere near their best would have won that game. So why the tepid showing? It’s a mystery.
2. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Saturday’s defeat was the eagerness in which some of our fan base displayed in putting the boot into City after one poor showing. We’ve said before that City have spoilt us with their superb football this season and that’s exactly how some chose to behave after a rare defeat, spoilt. “I think I’ll go to the ticket office and demand a refund” said one bitter fan as he filed out of the ground, well unless your ticket said admission to a Hull City win, you have little grounds for a refund, sir. Everyone was frustrated by defeat when earlier results gave us a chance to get nearer to top spot and put daylight between us and the chasing pack, but the outpouring of bile at the ground, on radio forums and Twitter was utterly disproportionate for the season we’re having.
3. It’s a pretty appalling thing to suggest that Jakupović was feigning injury to mask his considerable blushes after a truly terrible showing – yet that niggling doubt won’t go away. Surely a professional footballer would never stoop so low. We really want to believe no City player would ever be so pathetic.
4. If he has sustained any sort of injury and can’t play on Tuesday – who on earth is going to go in goal? Mark Oxley is cup-tied, Ben Amos is back at Manchester United and Joe Cracknell is barely out of school. Emergency loan? Trust young Cracknell with his first ever senior performance? However disappointing he was on Saturday, City could really do with Jakupović being fit.
5. Who else is likely to play at Orient then? Make the first team finish the job and try to re-establish some fluency against lesser opposition in a lesser tournament – or make the second string XI redeem itself? Now there’s a tricky one. We suspect Mr Bruce will stick with his fringe players.
6. Two weeks ago we wrote to the new Police & Crime Commissioner for this area, Matthew Grove – the winner of November’s election to the post. We wanted to ask whether the impeccable conduct of City fans in the Leeds and Huddersfield games will mean the end of pointless lunchtime kick-offs. We’ve not yet received a full reply as it’s apparently not under his jurisdiction, but we have been promised one soon by whoever actually makes these decisions. We’ll reproduce it upon arrival.
7. Psychology has always been as much a part of management as team selection and tactics, and Steve Bruce’s handling of Cameron Stewart’s mindset after the Orient game was masterful. His public chiding of Stewart for being unfit was followed by a quasi-apology and public praise that the player had responded in the desired way by training like a ‘beast’. The demise of Cameron Stewart has been a big disappointment, though it hasn’t been evident for some time the lad clearly has bags of talent, and hopefully Bruce can draw it out of him.
8. Such psychology may be needed to halt Jay Simpson’s slump too, his belief-free spot kick was emblematic of his loss of form and makes his impossible goal against Wolves seem like an eternity ago. When he was on form earlier this season some suggested that Barmby was very wrong to leave him out in the cold last year, but the lack of confidence shown in his last few outings replicates the Jay Simpson of 2011/12 who didn’t justify selection. Jay, leave penalty kicks to a German.
9. Away from City, but are we close to reaching a tipping point on ticket prices in this country? The national media’s love affair with the current English champions has come in handy for once, with plenty of publicity afforded for them sending back nearly a thousand tickets for their game at Arsenal yesterday. £62 for a regular League game is just insane. £28 for Sheff Weds at the Circle on Saturday was too much. Anything north of £20 for a second tier game really is pushing it; yet it’s almost always a fair bit more than that. It’s perhaps a little early to be sure, but there are increasing signs that football fans are going to vote with their feet very soon if the madness continues.
10. We saw signs of this on Saturday. Television or not, crap season or not, it was a surprise to see a club of Sheffield Wednesday’s stature bringing such a modest support to Hull. Similarly, a total gate of under 17,000 is a disappointment. It’s too expensive – but do City have any intention of doing anything about it? A week after spending £3.5m on players is perhaps a bad time to suggest the club reduce its charges, but if thousands can’t afford to go and see these new players in person…
This is not just “one poor showing”. Have you forgotten Peterborough, Burnley, or even Blackpool? If we are to make a serious promotion bid, these are the games we should be winning at home. Our away form has negated these bad results so far but we must improve. We are still in a good position, lets get behind the team and go for it. One predatory striker and a quality keeper should do it. UTT
Comment by Ian — January 14, 2013 @ 10:01 am
Matt Duke?
For the first time since 1969 I was one of those who left early. This was because the stupid kick off time gave me very little time to gt to the station to catch the train back to Manchester. If I had missed it there was a 90 minute wait or the prospect of an alternative journey via SHEFFIELD! The extended injury time made things worse by some distance and when the third SW goal went in I gave up hope of Chris Chilton scoring twice and dashed off to avoid a cold wet Hull Saturday night.
Perhaps the extended break for most of the players had something to do with the poor performance. I’d play the full first team at Orient. If we lose there’ll be a two week gap to come again which won’t help.
Comment by Chris Stern — January 14, 2013 @ 10:23 am
It’s a bit rich to describe Simpson’s penalty as belief-free, he showed evident massive belief when he wrestled the ball from a supine Koren. Ability-to-take-penalties-free would be an apter description.
Comment by Clint Naysmith — January 14, 2013 @ 10:24 am
I have a feeling like the poster above that the inept performance may well have been down to the more or less 2 week gap most player had from their last game. In hindsight it may well have been better to play the nucleus of the first team for the Orient game, thereby keeping the momentum of the unbeaten run going, which may well have also avoided this replay.
Comment by John Aberdeen — January 14, 2013 @ 10:56 am
So Ian, if a team loses a few games a season, they are not serious about promotion? Don’t be ridiculous, every team loses games. That whole ‘if they’re serious about’ uff uff uffery is utterly retarded. Have we forgotten some defeats? No, we just don’t expect any team to be perfect, Cardiff have lost 6 games, so it would seem they’re not serious about the title.
Comment by Les — January 14, 2013 @ 12:59 pm
£62 for the ticket at Arsenal plus however much it costs to get from Manchester to London & you’re talking in excess of £100 to see a football match – ridiculous.
Comment by Bill Baxter — January 14, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
Excellent report. Biggest disappointment was that we should have known all about Wednesday’s physicality (which is their weapon to combat a lack of quality through their side) and adjusted our approach accordingly. We didn’t do so. Also, our ability to play our passing game will now be sorely tested by the state of playing surfaces, not least with the unwelcome return to the KC of the rugby. This has manifested itself already with the Blackpool pitch. I don’t buy into the theory we suffered by not playing our first team in the cup and I would stick with the same side for the return, regardless if it means the end of our involvement in the cup for another season. A cup run will do us no favours. Look what it did to Cardiff in the league cup last season. They barely had a win after they got to the final – and lost. No wonder Cardiff picked practically no first team players for their game with Macclesfield. That was the sensible thing to do. We can’t afford to risk injuries, suspensions that a cup run will bring. Besides the team that played against Orient should still be good enough to win the replay. As for fickle fans, that’s today’s world. Some have no perspective and assume every game should result in three points. Says more about them than anything else.
Comment by Barry Fleetwood — January 14, 2013 @ 1:33 pm
Uff uff retardery and sky games go hand in hand sadly.
Best not to give them the attention they crave. Those who go week in week out can give shit performances like Saturday’s the perspective they deserve.
Comment by Chunder Monkey — January 14, 2013 @ 1:41 pm
Your points:
1 & 2. I understand what you are getting at re: ‘City after one poor showing’, but what puzzles me is we have sent out two so-called competitive teams in successive matches and they both appeared uninspired and clueless! The coaching team take note!! As bad the performance was, the reaction of the ‘supporters’ was worse!
3. You’re right it is an appalling thing to . . . so don’t do it, because you are wrong – watch the replay!
4 & 5. We know we need a GK, we knew long before this fixture; we also need a striker.
7. Thank god someone else has seen the wisdom and excellent man management displayed by steve Bruce! Sincerely well done; so many ranted about ‘behind closed doors’ when the public are a very useful foil when used with intelligence!
8. The same approach won’t work with Simpson as he just cannot maintain a confidence level that can sustain a consistent level of goal-scoring that he needs to supply.
My Point:
I think that the over-riding failure lay with the management and coaching team. We have played splendid flowing football and won many richly deserved plaudits for style and attitude; my concern is that we have listened to these at the cost of not looking closely enough at the opposition, assessing their strengths and weakness and what their likely approach would be – if we had of done so, we had adequate talent in the squad to set-up against them and make their life far more difficult.
John (Aberdeen):
Spot on! Our abject failure to maintain a 1st team spine in the cup was massively self-defeating.
Comment by Fez — January 14, 2013 @ 7:04 pm
Agree with much of Comment 9 above!
Don’t think SB has done a good job with Simpson confidence wise! What does it say when you play 2 non-strikers up front? Some of the Know-it-alls should get off his back also. The lad looks like a footballer which is more than you can say for the German at times!
Orient’s pitch….if it’s played…will be heavy! No place for Aluko, but I would play a strong team! Why?…Well it’s not just ticket prices at a tipping point…I think our season is too! We’re pratting about over Stockdale & Campbell while Leicester have got it sorted! Note that all we’ve done this window is kept the same team….not enhanced it!! Automatic promotion could be a distancing dream after Peterborough…a game we could easily lose!! If we put out the likes of Dawson at Orient and lose, that’s beginning to look like a very poor run! SB should remember he didn’t do too well at pulling Sunderland out of a slump…which is why he’s here!!
I note that Paul Robinson has the same agent as SB….Have a word, Eh! Also have a look for a striker who can do Champs. play in the winter before the shelves are empty!!! Don’t wait on Campbell…been there, done that!…We could do with 2 anyway! Half the window wasted imo!
Comment by gjhdurham — January 14, 2013 @ 7:32 pm
We may have ‘kept the same team’ but we had to spend £3.5m to do it!
I would suggest Paul Robinsons wages are likely to be prohibitive when our wage bill is somewhere near £20m (TWS’s is just £11m)
Get Stockdale back on loan for the remainder of the season with a view to a perm in the summer and similarly get a PL striker on loan and hope he can do what Jason Roberts did for Reading.
Comment by suttontiger — January 14, 2013 @ 9:26 pm
Jay Simpson and Aluko had a great understanding and caused major problems to the opposition’s defenders, why did Bruce split that up in favour of Koren in behind Aluko?
Aluko is where Simpson got his new belief, lets hope its not too long before we see them both take up the front 2 positions again…
Comment by amberroar — January 17, 2013 @ 11:03 pm