whitey1980

Me too in real time, had no complaints until watching the replay at half time! Contact was minimal at best......was interesting that the lino gave it as ref was about to wave it away!!

I have every sympathy for Wes, but reckon he will have been apologising in the changing rooms. There were red flags all over the situation as it developed and he should never have given Davies the opportunity to go down.........which the diving cheat took full opportunity of!!! Poor decision by the officials but not clever defending either!

The answer to how, is naivety, plain and simple!!!! We passed the ball well and were a delight to watch BUT on reflection how much did we create and how many chances did we have? It may have looked different on tv, but I felt they had the better chances in the second half and we could have used a more direct physical presence earlier in the game. I felt we had to mix our game up a little in the second half as they knew what was coming and were better prepared to counter it!!

I will also come on and salute his performance tonight, absolutely immense and tactically very cute. Looked a class act at both ends of the pitch!! Consistency is now key, as his was a performance that will have attracted attention this evening without doubt.

To reply to the question, as Vega has suggested the point was this. Fitz Hall was an outstanding defender for us in probably our strongest side of recent vintage. He looked ever inch to me a player who would kick on and be a solid premier league centre half with aspirations to go further. Through a variety of factors he could not establish himself at that level despite having opportunities at a number of clubs. To pull this back to Tarky, though he does have attributes that make him a decent league one defender, I cannot see how anybody on the performances he has given as a whole until this point in his career can say he will move definitively to a higher level. I hope he does for a number of reasons, the main one being it will confirm the quality of our coaching staff, as they will have developed him from a raw to accomplished talent....and that certainly bodes well for our future!

Having not seen the game as having been away on honeymoon I cannot comment on Tarky's performance at the weekend but have read this debate many times. As has been mentioned in this thread, his status as a homegrown player means he will always polarise opinion. He does at times show glimpses of quality with time on the ball and as with a number of players appears in better condition this season than last. However he does switch off too easily and lacks concentration, particularly when strikers pull off his shoulder centrally (although Mvoto did not help at times in this regard last season as it was also a fault of his). He is also guilty of getting far too tight to compensate for his lack of athleticism which means he can also give away cheap free kicks and be turned easily by a strong centre forward. He remains a work in progress, but for those who are talking of him playing at many levels higher......remember how good Fitz Hall was, and assess the level he reached in his career!!

His response to the challenge for his shirt at BP suggests that he won't win a battle if Tom Heaton is fit for purpose. Good move on paper and IMO is a potentially very good gk who with guaranteed regular first team football and support will continue to develop.....However in practice I suspect he will get neither at Burnley.

I think that this is an interesting situation for LJ to consider that highlights the very fine balance between competition placing pressure to perform as opposed to raising the level of a players performance. Everything about Cisak's demeanour suggests that having a number 2 brought in of Boozy's attitude and personality would place pressure on him that would not benefit his performance, and the seeds of this issue trace right back to the signing. Dickov must have been aware of this which suggests that either he didn't consider it to be an issue for Cisak or that he expected him to leave in the summer with Boozy in as number 1. When neither assumptions were correct, there was always a chance it would end in this manner. As LJ has been vocal about doing his background checks on players attitudes and characters then I assume he will not repeat this mistake. If he is going to have an openly competitive situation between the keepers he brings in this summer, then both must be aware and responsive to this environment. To get the best out of a character like Cisak, I would imagine he needs to feel secure in his shirt with an experienced and competent number 2 who is aware of his role but who could perform to a decent standard if necessary. As an example getting Brad Friedel to fulfil this role at Spurs was a major achievement for AVB, and has allowed Hugo Lloris to claim the shirt and become comfortable in his role. To be fair to LJ, everything I have seen suggests that he is aware of this and I fully expect him to get it right. Sadly for us and Cisak (who is a talented young keeper who was superb until christmas last year), Dickov got it wrong, and by the time LJ arrived was damaged goods in need of a fresh start. As such he had no option but to go with the hot hand in Boozy and hope to get through the season before addressing the situation, which he now has!!

Felt their support for their team in the Johnson's paint two seasons ago was superb.....by far the best we have welcomed in recent years! Kudos to them......although Craig Fagans penalty might not have come back into orbit yet!!

As a long time lurker on this site i have read the views of others on this site posting nonsense but have never before been sufficiently riled to post but here goes!! Latics despite our clear limitations had 3 golden opportunities to score today that you simply cannot miss at any level; The Price miss in the first half, Taylor heading the ball over the bar from practically in the net in the second and the obvious Parker chance...it is these misses that are simply killing us. Against a good side playing poorly who could obviously move the ball (was really impressed by their right winger McNamee) we choked the midfield squeezed the play up the pitch and made ourselves difficult to penetrate which is to our credit. Their goal came from a defensive slip by Lee who ironically had possibly his best game for the club and offered a good outlet on the right and carried the ball well. Our weaknesses that are clearly highlighted are when we try and get the ball past our strikers with a wide player, or indeed one of our central midfielders which we are failing to do. As a result teams can sit deep, invite us inside and ask us to score from 30 yards against a packed defence with two giant centre halves (as all teams do at this level) which we don't have the players to do. (Aside possibly from Stevens who despite not scoring can clearly strike the ball cleanly and powerfully) How anybody can watch that game and claim that we lack effort or application is beyond me. We are limited and clearly not to good to go down seen as our weaknesses make us very easy to play against and nullify but I feel for the players if their integrity is being questioned unfairly. As for Penny i am certainly not a fan and if what little i hear is true ,he is not a great technical coach with limited ability to improve the players we have. However to lay the blame squarely at his door is harsh and i believe the problems we have at the club go way beyond him alone, and removing him would not solve anything except give a short term bounce in form for more long term upheaval. We are stuck in a long term rut, no better or significantly worse than a lot of clubs at this level, and until the people of the town back the club thats where we will stay, subject to this sort of worry if the bounce of the ball does not go our way and we lose tight games such as this one today.