Thetownend.com

A bit more to work with this week

Kilkenny

Kilkenny easily.

NOTA easily

Kilkenny wasn't a world beater but his constant movement and wanting the ball created space. Just a shame we didn't have the players to utilise it.

Kilkenny provided us with a midfield! Good debut.

Butterworth did well when he came on too.

Sobowale once again put in a strong performance. Looks a decent (if not spectacular) signing.

Went with the flow and the blue boots certainly stood out.

A mention for Sobowale who gave a very decent all round performance.
Lost possession in the lead up to their first goal but he was trying to be constructive at the time.
Dealt with Jones pretty well in the main.

This Jones chappy is a very good player but seems to have serious balance issues.
Apparently we have dead ball specialists in the side but nobody on hand to win the free kicks in range.
Maybe Tshimanga will be the man.
Fair play to the ref for letting the game flow and not falling for the falling over antics.

Interesting to see mention for Sobowale above. I thought his end product was frustratingly non-existent, likewise King, which isn’t ideal when playing with wing backs…hopefully the lad from Holland helps solve that.

Kilkenny MOTM by a country mile.

We are living off of sparse crumbs from the table as fans at the moment.

I've noticed that crossing is a skill that doesn't seem to improve in players where it's an essential part of their role.
Is it even coached? Like heading it's maybe not prioritised at academy level these days.
A cross is just a pass at the end of the day, "but the final delivery is poor" seems to be a very common description from fans of all teams about their wide players.

Kilkenny and then Sobowale for me.

Sobowale reminds me of a slightly better Ricky Shakes. Lots of dribbling and trickery, let down by his crossing.

Crossing died when wingers were obsoleted! It’s all about keeping the ball from the goalkeeper upwards and is coached at all levels.

I look forward to seeing Cox in action, he played some of his career at Brighton as a winger and moved to wingback, he loves to cross a ball and take on his man and is a deadball specialist, I thought Kings corners yesterday were really poor, from 9 corners he put in just 1 to Smiths head all game, the rest were short or long.

With so many tall players we should utilise that threat from corners way more than we do currently.

Feels a bit Scott Lindsey season to me…
Putting all your eggs in the wing back basket but then realising the wing backs (who are vital to the system) aren’t up to scratch.

We used Sobowale & Longelo all preseason and 4 games in we’ve already tried to replace them with King & Cox…