This match certainly did not live up to its billing. It was littered with unforced errors and sloppy play. We seemed to approach it more like a training game. Matthew Etherington personified it. When he had the ball in the first half he was reasonably effective, but he wasn’t hungry for it. Whenever he didn’t have the ball he just ambled about. Lucas Neill played as if his mind was elsewhere. There wasn’t a single occasion when he prevented a cross coming in. And as for Dean Ashton, well the only comparison I could think of was Iain Dowie. The only bright spots were Mark Noble, who played his heart out, and Carlton Cole, who was awesome in his hold up play. Pantsil did little, although he was an adept crosser of the ball. Kyel Reid was a huge disappointment when he came on.
The it’s now off to Manchester, where they have won about a zillion home games in a row. I don’t see us getting anything there to be honest. A final word about City’s new signing, Castillo. Awesom signing. Looked like a Mexican Joe Cole. We could do with an inventive player like him.
Green 8
McCartney 7
Upson 6
Ferdinand 7
Neill 5
Spector 6
Pantsil 6
Etherington 7
Reid 4
Noble 9
Mullins 6
Cole 8
Ashton 5
West Ham Till I Die 
I think you’re being a bit hard on a couple of the guys, Etherington’s just come back from injury, and Neill was simply outclassed by a far better player with pace in Petrov. He might have had a hamstring injury as well according to reports?
Overall I think an even game with both the defences coming out on top, I’d like to see Ashton become more nimble footed, he did have some chances but couldn’t get the ball under control, he had a chance at the end of the game but unfortunately headed straight at the GK. Cole worked very hard as usual but still didn’t get a decent attempt on goal. Noble was my MOTM as well, Even though Reid had a fairly poor game it was good to see 3 Academy players out on the pitch.
thought Pants had good game,worth more than your 6.Reids crossing was spot on,though i would like to see him take on defenders,though i think that will come with more expierience and appearances,other than that you pretty spot on.
I’m glad you noticed Castillo. He stuck out like a beacon for me too. How come Curbs missed him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htu9QZYttMs Anyway how about getting off Deano’s back . He was unlucky with a few chances and made a bit of an effort this time. Its just like the Carlton Cole saga at the start of the season. Talk about a bunch of hypocrites.
Dissapomting game. I was in the chicken run and Petrov made our defense look chicken! He shot past Neill from the first kick, so Neills hamstring injury could not be blammed for his performace at this stage. In fact we were lucky not to concede earlly on like we did against Arsenal.
Green was A1 and Cole gave a battling effort from start to finish. I also thought Upson gave a good account of himself being very effective in winning headers. The rest were average; we seemed to lack ideas in breaking MC down and often went backwards as there was little movement up front from Ashton who I thought had a poor game.
We were stronger in the second half but again did not really show much passion, i was expecting Read to try and out run the back who stood of him but it was not to be and read gave the impression of being timid. Well need to be much better on the return if we really want to win.
Somehow I feel I want to stand up for Etherington but then another part thinks 7 is generous. He did his old Championship trick of trying to lose himself in the middle. He didn’t want to receive the ball, which was a shame: when he got it, he looked alright.
Sadly we just need someone back to be able to add something to the strikeforce – it’s just not good enough to have to rely on Deano and Cole the whole game – they aren’t good enough. We needed to be able to bring someone on in the second half and we don’t have anyone on the bench. We need Bellamy back – I think Zamora would add something, too. Not worthy of starting, maybe, but he was our top scorer last year.
When I call Deano and Cole ‘not good enough’, it came over a bit harsh. I don’t mean it badly – Ashton has the class, Cole has the desire, but we need someone who’ll start scoring really regularly, and Deano looked exhausted pretty quickly.
totaly agree with you Iain, again ashton was like a peice of cardboard, and the mistakes in passing was miserable, and i have to say, the man City fans drowned our fans out with their singing, but then i was only 50 feet away from them.