Once again we seem to prove my view we're a fair weather team. So many poor performances in bad weather. I knew we were going to get someone sent off as soon as it was mentioned we hadn't had a red card this year.
Burge had a stinker. I am worried that he's made a few since and just before Stockdale and it's got into his head and we'll likely see a few more before the season's out. Really don't see the point in the ironic cheering etc as it's not going to help. I'm not saying anyone should be there throwing praise at him or isn't allowed to let out an expletive of frustration when the fuck up occurs but after that if you can't back him at least be sensible and bite your lip. I am becoming more receptive to the idea of allowing all three keepers to leave at the end of the season and use the whole lot to bring in one vocal Championship quality keeper and hope he doesn't get injured or have a stinker. We would potentially have the loan market if he did though.
Also worried that we may be without Hyam and Willis for Tuesday. I was surprised Davies struggled physically - it what I'd expect him to do well. Be interesting to see if MR would put Grimmer in at CB or bring the likes of Thompson in - personally I think it'd be Grimmer.
Bright can look so good when his runs and tricks come off but when they don't it's infuriating. Some words on here are apt - brainless, showpony and selfish. He is all 'look at me'. His set pieces were absolutely awful too. I think he was unlucky to be sent off, but what's more infuriating is the lack of consistency in the reffing - two or three times they made cynical fouls on the likes of Thomas and they didn't even get spoken too but Bright has two quite minor infringements and gets sent off. When it happened I was thinking "bring him off before he's sent off" then the ref went over and gave him a harsh second yellow.
Someone really needs to take Thomas to one side and say "where you aim the ball at the goal, aim it a yard further into the post. Get it on target and make the keeper save. He might fluff it and it goes in. It could rebound to you or another Cov player and be a tap in. JUST MAKE SURE IT'S ON TARGET!
Tacticswise we came out for the second half and scored early - one of the few times MR seems to have had a positive impact with HT team talk, then the sending off happens and Burge fucks up and it's all lost.
Subs - I can see why you might prefer Shipley on the left instead of Hiwula with ten men and Baka wasn't having a great game but I'm not sure Hiwula up front on his own is a great choice, especially a man down.
But a goal down and two subs left we choose in injury time to swap a LB with a RB, even though there's a LB on the bench? Explain? Even if you don't think Bremang's ready just for a few minutes shove him on and see if he gets a goal because I doubt they've done much, if any, homework on him and his style of play. Really don't get why you'd have players on the bench you are not prepared to bring on. Burroughs for example, who I believe plays as an attacking centre/left midfielder when you've got Shipley, a centre/left midfielder already on the bench and U23's not in the squad.
Once again it points to MR being a manager that cannot alter games and has to stick to the one plan. He can't adapt to in-game situations.
At least we've got the chance to get that out of our systems quickly with another game so quickly. The atmosphere could be terrible if we get off to a bad start and go a goal down though.
