Battle supreme to dispose of Fulham

Read more: gasheads.org/thread/6691/battle-supreme-dispose-fulham#ixzz4qZRb6qbaGame No 5


Opponents Fulham Away
CARABOU CUP Round 2  Won 1-0


Team                                               Performance                                                                                                                                            Mark out of 10

Slocombe Good solid,confident  performance that in my eyes gives him the edge over Smith.Handling superb,kicking not so good,                                        7.5
Bola On his wrong side and rarely would you have known it. Solid, pacey, confident,assured. Belied his age and experience.                                                   9 
Lockyer Needed to be calm and efficient  as were up against it for most of the second half and was. Distribution let him down too often.                                 7.5
Sweeney Strong and at his best when doing things simply but caught a couple of times trying to be too clever. A clean sheet will do wonders for confidence     7.5 .
Brown      Lee was back to his very best defensively and IMO that is of prime importance.Both full backs were up aagainst tidy wingers and did excellently.       9
Bodin Should have done better with a couple of half chances but was a bit greedy but there again who would want to stop Billy doing what he does.                 7.5
Sercombe I can't speak highly enough of this signing. Great all round performance -vision as in the pass for the goal, skill, won the ball and retained possession  9
Lines  Showed his class when in possession and broke down the Fulham attack to start the move for the goal. Was always available                                           8
Sinclair Represents our club superbly. Not the most gifted player but gives everything and hassles the opposition from the first to last whistle.                           7
Moore Probably the most disappointing player because I really want him to do well but for me just doesn't look like beating his player but no lack of effort          6 
Harrison Ran his socks off all night and scored a magical goal that we have waited for. came of age and frightened Fulham to death everytime he had the ball.    9 MOM 

Subs:
Gaffney Superb pass through to Nicholls as soon as he came on but for a change he was second fiddle to Ellis in both effort and skill.                                        6.5
Broom Little time in which to do anything and didn't really get into the game other than a couple of runs.                                                                                6.5
Nicholls Should probably have settled the game soon after coming on but showed some nice touches and helped see the game out                                            7


Defence summed up Best defensive display of the season and needed to be as we had to do a lot of defending second half but restricted Fulham to mainly long range efforts. Both full backs excelled for me and I would keep the same back four for Saturday.

Midfield summed up Worked throughout and in possession tried to get attacks going. Sercombe was outstanding again and looks a superb signing. Sinclair and Moore both struggled at times but kept working hard and pressurised opponents and against superior quality of opponents I would not criticise any individual in such a supreme team effort


Attack summed Up I think Fulham would have preferred to have our strikers who looked dangerous and we created the better chances even on limited possession in the second half.


Man of Match Ellis Harrison A different class last night

DC- Seems to be running out of right backs but maybe saved the best to last in Bola. Picked pretty well the best of what he had available. Made three changes from Saturday and if available I would bring back both Ollie Clarke and Nicholls for Saturdays important match but leave Bola in. I still believe that we are three or maybe 4 players short of a top six side and hope he is still looking. On the evidence of what I have seen so far this season we need two wingers, another defensive midfielder and another striker to make up the 5 complement that DC prefers.

Referee 6 OK and even over ruled his bloody awful Linesman who struggled to get a decision right

Crowd Not sure how many Gasheads but looked over a 1000 and could have been as many as 1300 but sounded like 5000! Won the singing contest 10-0- well it was  a non contest.Supported the team superbly and the team battled as if their lives depended on it.

Final Comment Ok it was  a Fulham second string but make no mistake this was a Fulham side loaded with talent when it comes to quality on the ball. They tried everything to get back into the tie but other than long shots they huffed and puffed without any real punch in their forwards. Because of how they played I am not convinced that other than the strikers the players missing would have made that much difference and maybe the players out there will be pushing for first team spots at the weekend as I understand they have been pretty punchless anyway this season., As for us it was a superb battling performance that probably everybody deserved a 10 for commitment but I have marked based on the quality rather than the hearts which they all wore on their sleeves.