just back from the match

[Herbie von Smalls]

professional and relatively dominant performance today. we bossed the game for all but a nervous 15 minutes or so in the second half. the away support sang well for the most part, though the team's nervousness filtered through to the away end during the sticky period.

 

positives: bellamy ran intelligently - he and kuyt are really showing signs of mutual awareness and rapport, with some nice sharp interplay. pennant had a decent second half and some fantastic first touches. xabi was imperious, owning the midfield. two fantastic goals, bellamy's finish was lightning quick, stevie unnerved the charlton defence into giving him enough time to pick out a great finish. our back four had a solid game again, on the whole, though charlton might've done better with two or three chances. gonazales looked hungry and quick.

 

negatives: dirk's finishing was sadly woeful, in spite of his energy and vision. pennant alas looked static at times, particularly in the first half - just didn't anticipate well enough on occasion and found himself out of position - second half was improved. an otherwise imposing defence got a bit shaky and better charlton finishing may have caused us problems.

 

charlton lacked spirit and fight, but for a few players. djimi looked to have raised his game against his former colleagues, has he filled out a bit too?

 

all in all, the scoreline was a fair reflection of the action.

Edited December 16, 2006 by Herbie von Smalls

[gkmacca]

  Herbie von Smalls said:

professional and relatively dominant performance today. we bossed the game for all but a nervous 15 . djimi looked to have raised his game against his former colleagues, has he filled out a bit too?

 

Several Charlton players looked like they've been surviving on pies and ale all season.

[TFU]

Some guy behind me was giving Kuyt a really hard time, saying he was awful, has a terrible first touch etc... Thought he played alright like, just forgot his shooting boots.

 

Thought Risse was poor today, followed by a frustrating performance by Pennant... Alonso was boss though.

 

Still all the bad performances were forgotten with the vision of the very pretty mounted WPC by the station on the way home, god bless her.

[Dule]

I thought Gonzalez and Bellamy linking up in the first half was absolutely brilliant.

[KD07]

Riise's got to play out his s**** streak ASAP.

[_00_deathscar]

Yes and ASAP!

 

Still, he's playing the worst he's played in about 3 years now and we've still won 3 on the trot Not badd.

[muleskinner]

W have no options either side at full back, Rafa needs to get some pressure on Finnan and Riise in January. Not that either are bad players but an injury or suspension to both would be a big set back.

[Will]

  Herbie von Smalls said:

gonazales

González

[billybunter]

the thing with Kuyt at the moment is though he is missing, it seems more attributed to bad luck than bad technique.

 

When his luck turns, he will be banging them in

[Guest keygone]

  TFU said:

Some guy behind me was giving Kuyt a really hard time, saying he was awful, has a terrible first touch etc... Thought he played alright like, just forgot his shooting boots.

 

Thought Risse was poor today, followed by a frustrating performance by Pennant... Alonso was boss though.

 

Still all the bad performances were forgotten with the vision of the very pretty mounted WPC by the station on the way home, god bless her.

 

 

I saw her too, she was class!

[Coyler]

  billybunter said:

the thing with Kuyt at the moment is though he is missing, it seems more attributed to bad luck than bad technique.

 

When his luck turns, he will be banging them in

He didn't really miss any openers unless you count the one he hit the post with. He will go on a savage run soon.

[Figaro]

I was screaming at pennant to help his team mates in possession

 

another clean sheet for Reina - what's that now 550 minutes?

 

It's so easy to take Pepe for granted.

[_00_deathscar]

570 minutes by my clock...?

 

The statistic (through commentary) at the end of LAST week said 7 hours 20 minutes...

[Figaro]

  _00_deathscar said:

570 minutes by my clock...?

 

The statistic (through commentary) at the end of LAST week said 7 hours 20 minutes...

 

another c**k-up by the madrid based sports press then - typical - although we due use different time zones

[KD07]

Must be all that siesta

[Puskas]

Some more positives from the game:

 

- The first win of the season in the yellow kit. Hopefully the first of many.

- An away win in London (we only managed one all last season).