Man of the Match & Player Ratings vs Portsmouth (H), 30/07/22

[Emerson Thome]

Oh boy. What do you make of that?

[Luke]

Dele 7  (good goals)

Rest of midfield 5 (lost the battle again)

Strikers 4  (not their fault)

Defence 2 (shocking!)

Stockdale 3 (made a complete mess of their second goal)

[Emerson Thome]

My scores:

 

Stockdale: 5 - didn't do much except pick the ball out of the net three times.

Iorfa: 3 - an absolutely bomb scare, passes go out of play, twice lost his man for goals, and decided to kung-fu kick their attacker in the head in the corner of the penalty area (and somehow got away with it)

Heneghan: 6 - can't fault him for any of the goals, odd hairy moment with passes along the backline

Ihiekwe: 6 - see Heneghan. Was unlucky his bullet header was blocked on the line by a defender

Hunt: 6.5 - usual scampering performance but got a little overrun at times in the second half

Johnson: 8 - the usual quality Neymarv performance and well controlled shot for the goal

Byers: 7 - industrious performance to keep us ticking over

Dele-Bashiru: 9.5 - MoM. "No - don't shoot from there it'll......WHAT A GOAL!". Great power driving forward. And another thunder-strike for his second. I still worry about him off the ball sometimes, but he's so good on the ball.

Bannan: 7.5 - delightful clipped ball for the first goal. Though didn't quite get on the ball as often as we would have liked.

Windass: 7.5 - Great composure for the first goal. Poor defending for first Pompey goal though.

Gregory: 7 - Red card was an absolute nonsense, Gregory was pulled back initially. Unfortunately can't appeal it as it is two yellows. Nearly got on the end of quite a few things. 

 

Smith: 6.5 - Held in the box - perhaps should have been a pen? (Same thing happened to Gregory earlier too).

Vaulks: N/A - Not on long enough to say

[captain bucky o'hare]

We look very threatening going forward and Dele-Bashiru has come on in leaps and bounds if that performance is anything to go by. 
 

Iorfa needs to be dropped after some criminal defending and poor decision making. He looks a shadow of the player he was in the championship before his injury.

 

I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Dawson become our first choice keeper as the season progresses. That isn’t based purely off todays performance by the way.

[BOOFABI]

FDB MoM for obvious reasons.

 

We need a CB.

[NobbyStyle]

Just the fact we score 3 at home and don’t win….?

[sexpistol]

As good as Fizz was and he was clearly mom it was due to him losing the ball they scored their second.

[StudentOwl]

1 minute ago, sexpistol said:

As good as Fizz was and he was clearly mom it was due to him losing the ball they scored their second.

Of course the other side of that coin is that no ruddy defender did their job for the 9 and a half seconds between him losing the ball and them scoring

 

I don't disagree though, he was very naive at that point

[zorbatheowl]

Someone has voted for Iorfa. FFS

[sexpistol]

Just now, StudentOwl said:

Of course the other side of that coin is that no ruddy defender did their job for the 9 and a half seconds between him losing the ball and them scoring

 

I don't disagree though, he was very naive at that point

There was enough time for his error to be rectified. What I loved was the Fizz was willing to run at players and make things happen and he happened to score two great strikes as well.

[hirstys_achilles]

Fdb mom 8.0 2 excellent strikes. 

Everyone else was 6.5. Low scores for lots of different reasons. 

Long season ahead. Draw not ideal but not disaster. Iorfa needs some games. Don't agree with dropping him. We all know what he can do. 

Looks like we are in for an exciting season. 

[WalthamOwl]

FDB. Majority of the rest bang average. Iorfa especially was awful. Pathetic defending from the team for all 3 goals. 

[FreshOwl]

Two new CBs are absolute donkeys. What was Moore thinking signing them? 
 

Stockdale thinks he’s Ederson 

 

Dele the only decent standout 

[MBMitchell]

Stockdale: 5 maybe should have come for the crosses but the defence left him wide open, looking a bit err bigger than what he should be imo. Hopefully will improve

Iorfa: 2 absolutely shocking performance, two goals his fault, can't pass or cross. Just woeful 

 

Heneghan: 6 - didn't do great didn't do bad, shame as he looked good pre season

 

Ihiekwe: 6 - same as above as not his fault for the goals and unlucky not to score 

 

Hunt: 6 a big fan of hunt, but was a bit meh for me

 

Johnson: 7 good goal, other than that his crosses etc were a bit long from what I remember

 

Byers: 7 - did ok/well nothing to complain about, yet nothing to write HK e avout

 

Dele-Bashiru: 9.5  not his biggest fan as I think he can sometimes go AWOL and disappear from games, but today wow, absolutely awesome

 

Bannan: 8 was involved a lot and won't blame him for not beating his man for the first goal

 

Windass: 8 brilliant first half, disappeared in second half. I'm a big critic of him upfront as I think his wandering can leave us playing with one striker

 

Gregory: 5 I know a fans favourite, and I haven't down scored him for his red card. Just thought the game passed him by and he didn't do much of anything

 

 

Smith: 6 didn't do much, hopeful that's fitness as I thought first half with crosses coming in more, he was the player we needde

 

Vaulks: no score due to minutes on pitch

 

DM well not the best start, not his greatest fan and I did say at end of season that we'd have a big turnover of players, when fans said we struggled at start of season as we needed to gel and this season it'd be better,  and got laughed at and ridiculed

 

I don't think we can judge DM to at least ten games in, I'd love him to succeed but have my doubts

 

Overall a bit deflated and disappointed overall with today

[Pieman]

Stockdale: 5 - Nothing to do, but not enough presence on crosses. Of course his defenders should have won the headers, but he could also have come for one or two of them.

Iorfa: 3 - terrible performance. Wtf is going on.

Heneghan: 6 - Did his job well, but has to take some responsibility for the goals.

Ihiekwe: 5 - Looked ok, but our LHS is wide open. Unlucky not to score.

Hunt: 7 - good use of the ball, some inviting crosses and a good shot.

Johnson: 4 - an extra point for the goal, but his passing was awful and he was in the wrong place so often. At least one of the goals came from his errors.

Byers: 7 - Really good game. Our midfield looks solid.

Dele-Bashiru: 9 - two stunners and a class act today. The run on the right and the cross were also superb. So composed when much older heads around him begin to flap.

Bannan: 8 - excellent game from the skipper, with a couple of sublime passes. Kept his passing nice and simple. His long balls were on the deck.

Windass: 7 - good game, his mobility and vision were excellent. Still looks one notch of total match fitness.

Gregory: 6 - not at his best today, although often surrounded by defenders. Was on his heels a couple of times when great balls came into the box. Should have scored, anticipating the defenders dive and lifted it over his leg. Sending off was ridiculous.

 

Exactly the same as preseason. Our attacking interplay was excellent, the best in the division. Our defending was school boy, the worst in the division. To control a half of football like that and then concede 3 p*** poor goals in 10 or so minutes, is a joke. 
 

We have choices. Iorfa has to be dropped and Marv needs a rocket up his ass, just not good enough. 
 

We need to move to a back four.
 

Palmer…Henegan…..Ike….James.

……………Vaulks……Byers

……….Windass..Fizz….Baz

………………..Smith

 

DC - please go and get Dean.

[malek]

Stockdale: 5

Iorfa: 4

Heneghan: 5

Ihiekwe: 5

Hunt: 6

Johnson: 7

Byers: 7

Dele-Bashiru: 9

Bannan: 8

Windass: 6

Gregory: 5

[Paul..]

6 minutes ago, malek said:

Stockdale: 5

Iorfa: 4

Heneghan: 5

Ihiekwe: 5

Hunt: 6

Johnson: 7

Byers: 7

Dele-Bashiru: 9

Bannan: 8

Windass: 6

Gregory: 5

 

Pretty much agree with that thought I'd knock at least 1 off Johnson, thought he was pretty poor, not sure his legs are what they used to be. Look forward to seeing James in that position.

[Brian]

FDB by some distance.  For all his talent, I've found him frustrating up to now in that he seems to take forever to decide what to do with the ball after doing so much great work in driving past players or holding them off to get into excellent positions.  Different story today, though.  His play was more mature and sharper, and his finishing was sublime.  I hope this is a sign of things to come.

[debram]

22 minutes ago, malek said:

Stockdale: 5

Iorfa: 4

Heneghan: 5

Ihiekwe: 5

Hunt: 6

Johnson: 7

Byers: 7

Dele-Bashiru: 9

Bannan: 8

Windass: 6

Gregory: 5

Knock a few off Johnson,  good goal but did nothing else and where was he when we conceded 3 goals from crosses in the area he should have been defending. 

[davetherivelinowl]

I feel a bit shell-shocked. We line up with a new back-line of giants and STILL concede 3 goals from headers. And so easily. Anyway

 

Stockdale: 5 No saves, 3 goals conceded

Iorfa: 4 Need to watch their goals again but think he went awol. Did very little that was right. Lucky not to get sent off or at least concede a penalty with his high kick

Heneghan: 5 Won plenty of headers but seemed to chase everything, leaving holes

Ihiekwe: 5  Did Ok but all three goals came from his flank. Not as monstrous as I expected

Hunt: 6 did well with his shooting opportunity and defended well at times but didn't offer enough of a threat

Johnson: 6 an extra point for his goal but so much of their threat came because he was getting caught out the wrong side of his man

Byers: 7 Had a terrific first half but went quiet in the 2nd and became a sending off waiting to happen

Dele-Bashiru: 7 MoM Two goals and several other outstanding moments but was at fault for their second and went quiet for long periods

Bannan: 7 again, some great moments but unable to dictate like he can

Windass: 6 another player who did some really good things but was quiet for long periods

Gregory: 5 really struggled against their s*ithousery. Found it unusually hard to get a clean header or neat control

 

Smith: 5 too early to say but, like Gregory, was unable to get on the end of anything

Vaulks: N/A

 

Apart from worrying about our ability to defend crosses, I hope we also have an inquest on why our midfield, so excellent in the first half, more or less evaporated in the second.