Carling Cup, The Reserves Cup, The Fringe Cup. Whatever you want to call it, we’re in the last 16 and three rounds away from a Wembley Final. Birmingham had a great day out and won the Final last year... and then got relegated.... oops.
Nigel has made the unusual step of naming James Ward-Prowse in the side, two days before the game.. He’s still 16 so it’s a massive day for him. I’m in two minds about this as slotting him into an otherwise unchanged midfield would be ok, playing him in a team of reserves is something else... no doubt Arsenal will have a scout watching.... just piss off. I think these games really highlight the bare areas in our squad, centre defence and up front. As far as I can see we have two fit centre halves unless Nigel is going to throw Harlee Dean in there instead of Big Jos and in the last round, the ‘partnership’ of Johnno Pace and Ben Reeves up front was not great.
If it was down to me I’d play one of Sir Rickie and the Gulyman up front with Johnno and have Aaron Martin and Big Jos at the back. Also, one of the experienced central midfielders (Chappers, Morgan, Corky) in there with Ward-Prowse. Nigel on the other hand, went with an iffy forward line of Ben Reeves and Johnno Pace with Jack Cork drafted into play centre back alongside Aaron Martin. Harding and Butters were the full backs with Holmes and de Ridder on the wings. The experience in midfield was provided by 21 year old Schneiderlin. On the bench we had some experience with Sir Rickie, the Gulyman and the welcome sight of Lee Barnard back from injury and also, untried youngsters Harlee Dean, Corby Moore and keeper Jack Dovey as Dismal Forecast has been loaned out to Shitterton in the Bevois Valley Sunday Division 7.
Saints had the first decent chance of the match with a corner being headed goalwards by Corky who beat the keeper but not the defender stationed on the line. Ben Reeves then went close, making a chance for himself with his own tenacity and firing in a low shot which the Palace keeper held well. Reeves was showing up well up front and put in a dangerous cross which eluded everyone before being muscled out of things in the area and unsuccessfully appealing for a penalty. I don’t really think it was but some ref’s might have given it. The fact that Reeves weighs about 6 stone may have contributed to him being knocked over.
We had a great chance on 25 minutes as former Skates season ticket holder James Ward-Prowse, played Johnno Pace through and after doing the difficult bit and making space for himself, fired it straight at the keeper. It was mainly Saints for the rest of the first half but we carried little or no goal threat and his name was Johnno.
Jermaine Easter came into the game for Palace at the start of the second half, having a couple of snap shots which flew over the bar but nothing much happened until the hour mark when a fine Harding cross went onto the head of Johnno Pace and you can guess the rest – needless to say, the onion bag wasn’t involved.
On 70 minutes, Nigel had seen enough and Johnno was put out of his misery and replaced with lee Barnard for his first action of the season. Not that it was Barney’s fault but impact sub worked in the negative and it took all of 3 minutes for us to fall behind as Corky’s attempted clearance sliced its way to Williams on the right wing and his cross was swept in by Darren Ambrose from close range. The goal brought more action on the bench and Sir Rickie and the Gulyman came on for the tiring Reeves and the ineffective Holmes who as ‘ineffective’ implies, hadn’t achieved very much all game.
Again, our substitutions coincided with a Palace goal as Williams, who was going away from goal on the left hand side of the penalty area, was needlessly and clumsily tripped by Harding for the easiest decision this ref will ever have to make. Bart dived right and Easter put the ball to his left to make it 2-0 and game over.
Sir Rickie had a go from a free kick which was held by the keeper and a Gulyman snap shot was shoved over by a combination of keeper and the cross bar. Too little too late and out we went.
It’s hard not to be disappointed a bit at going out of a competition but we as supporters have to accept that the club has different priorities this year, however, I feel that just by having either the Gulyman or Sir Rickie up front instead of Johnno would have won us the game. I guess our job is to support whatever team and players are representing SFC and over 2,500 did that on a crappy night in South London which is a fantastic effort. As you can doubtless tell from this crappy blog entry, I wasn’t one of them and as I was skanking away at a Specials gig with thousands of other 40+ year olds, I didn’t have the insight of Merrington to fall back on.
Nigel’s interview said a lot as he was a bit negative which stands out because he very rarely is. He said that some players didn’t do themselves any favour today and I think we can assume he’s talking about Johnno Pace, Lee Holmes and Steve de Ridder as he criticised our lack of goal threat whilst exonerating Ben Reeves who was the only other player in an advanced position. James Ward-Prowse was picked out for praise and it does seem to have been a very confident debut for the lad. The Skates were annoyed when Alex Chamberlain slipped through their net so it’s nice to have another one do the same.
Middlesbrough at home on Saturday and I think we may see just a few changes. If Jose Fonte is not fit then expect Aaron Martin to play as we have no one else and maybe Lee Barnard will make the bench which may have the effect of sparking David Connolly back into goalscoring form. Morgan or Deano in midfield is another question and I expect the Frenchman to get the nod after a decent performance tonight. A win on Saturday and resting a load of players tonight will be justified, anything less and we may be looking at the game Crystal Palace get in the Quarter Finals of the Carling Cup and wondering what might have been.
Draw a blue line under it and move on.
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