Toby's Town ratings vs Brighton

[toby]

Supple 7/10 - made some important saves in the first half and was very brave when he was sold short on several occassions by his defenders. Not sure he could've done much about either goal and was pretty stready throughout. His distribution seems slightly mixed though, his throwing and bowling ("Bowled Shane!") is excellent but I really cannot understand why he seems to aim at least 75% of his kicks towards Haynes rather than Lee!

Barron 5/10 - had a tough time in the first half mainly because we appeared to have no left midfield and so it was regulary 2 or even 3 on 1. Even so though his positioning was often suspect, he kept tucking inside and allowing the Brighton wide players far to much space and time to recieve the ball. Got forward reasonably well and appears to be one of the few players we have who can deliver a reasonably decent cross.

Naylor 7/10 - didn't do a lot wrong before getting injured. In fact he made some important blocks and interceptions, including the one when he got a boot in the head.

De Vos 5/10 - Personally I am still not convinced by De Vos. He seems to lose out a fair bit in the air (although to be honest he was constantly being fouled yesterday) and his distribution/heading can be very wayward. Also for a captain does he actually say anything to the rest of the team? His communication with Supple was poor and I never once heard him bollocking our pathetically useless midfield. In fact Fabian was the only player I saw yesterday who appeared to be trying to gee people up a bit.

Wilnis 5/10 - Can't really remember too many contributions by Fab so will give him the average score. He got forward a few times and supported play but he's not the player he once was.

Richards 1/10 - Where was he playing? Can anyone tell me? He was all over the place and managed to play utter sh*te in a number of different positions! Centrally he was awful, constantly punting the ball upfield straight to the Brighton defenders. On the left he completely neglected any defensive duties leaving Barron completely exposed and then ocassionally he popped up on the right to play like an utter c**t over there as well! Richards performance as "class clown" yesterday was capped for me when he manged not 1 but 2 airshots at a corner which was cleared to the edge of the Brighton penalty area! FFS a professional footballer who cannot kick a ball!!!

Juan 3/10 - aka Mr Anonymous. Did he do anything yesterday? Do we really want to buy this player? Utterly anonymous and utterly sh*te yesterday. Did he make any tackles? Did he cover any of the Brighton runners? Did he make any telling contributions what-so-ever?

Garvan 2/10 - did Owen managed to pick out a blue shirt with any of his passes yesterday? Similar to Juan, in that did he do anything of consequence yesterday? Never seen such a promising player look so awful and uninterested. For a young man he also looked completely knackered and did virtually no running. I think that he and Juan were supposed to cover the left when "libero" Richards floated (like a turd that won't flush!) around the pitch, however I can only suspect this as there was precious little evidence for it.

Currie 2/10 - a passenger. A passenger that we can ill afford. Supposedly in the team for his "fantastic" crossing and playmaking and yet yesterday both were truly abysmal. He can't run, tackle, track back or beat players and I am rapidly beginning to wonder what he is in the team for. His crosses and set pieces were truly dreadful yesterday, I don't care what statistics (and Luke) tell us, the man is a luxury that we cannot afford. I hate to say this but I would rather have an untalented clogger who can actually run and tackle in the team than Currie. On the plus side at least Currie did manage a couple of shots on target which is more than the rest of the midfield managed. His poor performance however was topped off by delivering a freekick in a promising situation in injury time (it was 1-2 and we looked bizarrely as if we might just fluke an undeserved equaliser) straight down the keepers throat!

Haynes 5/10 - Looked lively early on then drifted out of the game. Forced a good save out of the Brighton keeper in the 2nd half when our only real decent bit of football of the entire match put him through.

Lee 4/10 - doesn't look anywhere near fully fit so why is Royle playing him in meaninglss matches? Had a couple of half decent runs but seemed to delay his shots too often and was always closed down. Didn't win a lot in the air and does seem pretty lightweight for a supposed "target man".

SUBS

Casement 7/10 - Shaky start when he first came on and may have been partly to blame for Brighton's opening goal but once he moved to right back I thought he looked our best player and the player most likely to make something happen! He had a couple of fantastic runs down the wing and managed to lift the crowd a little when most of us were trying to cheer ourselves up by reminding ourselves that "Doctor Who" was back.
Probably my MofM although that is partly down to everyone else being so sh*te that he wins it by default!

Forster 6/10 - Came on, looked lively and like he had a bit of a point to prove. Took his goal well and made some very good runs. Hopefully we will see more of him next season and perhaps we will have a striker who will finish the season in double figures!


Royle 2/10 - How can a manager just sit there (well stand there) and watch that turgid sh*te without trying to do anything about it? I regularly looked across at him thinking that he'd be doing his pieces or maybe telling Skard (or even Bowditch) to get warmed up, but no, instead he seemed quite content for us to play out the shitiest match I have seen for quite sometime. The players attitudes stunk to high heaven yesterday and Royle needs to be held accountable for it, if those players didn't want to play then why didn't he play ones that have something to prove (like Casement obviously did).


Fans 10/10 - For paying to watch that pile of w*nk and actually sticking with it till the end. The fact that the result looks closer than it was (against one of the bottom clubs!) should not paper over the facts that yesterday was totally unacceptable (and even more so in light of the previous home match).

I, for one, will certainly not be attending the Derby match as I feel that the players took the p*ss out of at least 22,000 loyal supporters yesterday and I cannot justify the expenditure to watch players who seem to think they are already on their holidays in Marbella and are already looking forward to "roasting" lap dancers and spunking our hard earnt cash up the wall.

[Rach]

Great post Toby....

[ippers]

Id agree about Juan TBH Toby, Surely Mahon would be a better signing at 200k?

[Rach]

Id agree about Juan TBH Toby, Surely Mahon would be a better signing at 200k?

Dont think we can get him tho as Burnley have already arranged it for the end of the season. Itd be quality to have him tho, or Koumas, or anyone who can create play.....

[phily bon bon]

great post toby and VERY VERY DEPRESSING READING, The day i accept F#CKING sh*te served up as the games we have had over the last few games(and dare I say it years) is the day I wear a yella and green shirt.There is NO excuse for the complete and utter tosh served up.I would have never given royal,de vos and a few others an extention to their contracts.I feel to many are milking ITFC whilst they can and have no stomach or passion for the club.For all those sponges PI## off now and save us the time and money.

[Dazza]

Richards 1/10 - Where was he playing? Can anyone tell me? He was all over the place and managed to play utter sh*te in a number of different positions! Centrally he was awful, constantly punting the ball upfield straight to the Brighton defenders. On the left he completely neglected any defensive duties leaving Barron completely exposed and then ocassionally he popped up on the right to play like an utter c**t over there as well! Richards performance as "class clown" yesterday was capped for me when he manged not 1 but 2 airshots at a corner which was cleared to the edge of the Brighton penalty area! FFS a professional footballer who cannot kick a ball!!!

Totally agree, he was crap as a defender and he is even worse as a midfielder!!!

Thought it summed him up when the North Stand started chanting "OFF, OFF, OFF" when the ref was having a word with him. We really would of done better without him on the field.