That game just pissed me off. The ref did, Stoke did (atjo to be fair to them they obviously had a game plan, stuck to it and got their reward ) and some of our performances did.
The longer the game went on, the more nervous thd lads hot in front of goal, trying to walk in it a lot of the time, any time we got a shot in it was a poor effort. I feel if we had got one early the floodgates would have opened up. That said, our passing in the first half was woeful. It improved second half but a game is 90 mins long, not 45. We can't just decide to play for 1 half.
Bellamy should have cane on earlier, his introduction really did kick-start our improvement in the 2nd half. A great substitution apperance, unfortunately the same can't be said for Carroll, yet again.
Our midfield 5 as a whole were shocking. Kuyt anonymous, Hendersontried but failed, Adam couldn't pass 5 yards, and Lucas was largely quiet. Downing tried at least and was ok to be fair.
Back 4 did ok but Carra did cost us the game really. Our last 2 goals conceded have been because of him. His legs have gone. Fast turning into a liability, OT was said last season too. Knee jerk it not, but it really is time to start bringing in his replacement this season. Enrique impressed to a certain extent. Agger was good and Srktel was solid.
The penalty pissed me off, like what was Carra at? We should have had 1 but we shouldn't be relying on penalties to get points in the first place. We took 50 minutes to get playing and that was 50 minutes too late, which resulted in 0 points.
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