Posted November 4, 200816 yr Time to meet the big boys, Stoke were men, virtually all with PL experience and to be honest it showed that the majority of our players were young lads with the odd exception. However, it still took Stoke well over an hour to find the net, much thanks to Rhys Taylor. It must be time to offload either Hiliaro or Carlo and move Rhys up the pecking order, played right he could be Cech's replacement down the line. The first half ended all square we had a couple of half chances Stoke had a couple of real chances which they failed to convert and probably explains why they were in the reserves in the first place. Chelsea's boys who came out the game with plus points: most really considering the opposition, special mention in dispatches to Ben Gordon, won a penalty in the second half that Stoch failed to convert which unfortunately marred an otherwise excellent performance from the wee one, only Big Phil standing in his way for a first team appearance now, Liam Bridcutt had to move to the back four tonight and done a great job, when you're only 5' 7" and the guy your marking is 6' 2" life ain't easy but Liam coped as he always does, a star in the making. As mentioned Rhys Taylor was sound could not be blamed for the goals and kept the score down. Michael Woods played well but a little below par, should have scored. And finally Scott Sinclair, to me Scott is a good player but makes too many wrong decisions, I know he's still young but the chances of becoming a first team player at the Bridge are slowly slipping away, I would not be surprised to see him move on in the summer. And that's more a reflection on the class needed to break into our first team than any criticism of Scott. A final word for "Maka-in-Disguise", 24 hours after making his first team debut Mineiro played a solid 90 minutes in the reserves, could give the hod carrier a scare. Edited November 4, 200816 yr by Tim W
November 4, 200816 yr Good write up Tim. I watched the first half and we had some good moments but really struggled against the strength and maturity of the Stoke side. We were particularly wasteful in the final third and a lot of that was down to Sinclair and Stoch who both seemed to anxious to play the killer ball rather than something more measured. At the back we were on a bit of a hiding to nothing and it doesn't surprise me that we lost in the end. Overall, I think it just highlighted the gap between the reserves and the big league.
November 6, 200816 yr Quite right Geezer, never try to resist temptation. You'd be no good at an alcoholics anonymous meeting would you?
