Notts County 1-2 City

[Godzilla]

Bristol City: Phillips; Carey, Butler, Coles (Bell), Hill; M.Brown (Goodfellow), Doherty, Tinnion, A.Brown; Miller (Lita), Peacock

Steve Phillips - 7 - Did ok. Some very way-ward kicking and flapped sometimes. But made a couple of good catches, had no chance with the goal, and made one excellent stop from Stallard to keep the score at 1-1 in the second half.

Louis Carey - 4 - Absolutely pants. Crossing was woeful, shows a real inability to run into a space when it presents itself, and always seems to pick the wrong passing option. Amankwaah couldn't have picked a worse time to get injured.

Tony Butler - 6 - A bit shakey at times, but distribution was generally ok, unlucky with the own goal, but looked ok.

Danny Coles - 6 - Same as Butler, just minus the own goal. We defended fairly solidly, and Steve Phillips was rarely called into action, other than making one save in the second half when County should've scored.

Matt Hill - 6 - Again, steady but not spectacular. He was better when moved to the centre in the second half, where it remains his best position. He lacks the skill and confidence on the ball to be a good full-back.

Marvin Brown - 7 - Played well when given the ball. Always keen to check inside and look to feet, showed some really good touches and his willingness to pass and move with the ball was excellent, mustn't be overlooked again.

##ommy Doherty - 7/8 - Always involved and was full of running. He lasted a lot longer today, and was involved on and off the ball. Got stuck in, made some good tackles, and generally used the ball affectively aswell.

Brian Tinnion - 6/7 - Did ok, but you felt he was trying too hard at times. Always wanted to play that winning through-ball or make that defence splitting pass when a simple ball would've been a better option. Not his best game, but he was far from poor.

Aaron Brown - 5 - He was actually doing ok until Marvin was brought off for Goodfellow, at which stage I think he realised he wasn't going to be brought off now and he suddenly looked inept on the ball and dissinterested off it. Absolutely no anticipation, and is always re-active to the ball rather than pro-active (ie. He only makes a run after the balls been played). Set up Goodfellow well, but far from impressive.

Lee Miller - 6 - Fairly Annonymous through-out, but mainly due to not so great service and lack of crosses from the wings. Competed well in the air, but we need to find him into feet more often. Full of running to little avail.

Lee Peacock - 6 - Like Miller, always willing to chase balls but didn't get far. We needed to play the ball into feet to our front men more often, and will need to do so even more if we use Goodfellow on the wing. He'll offer more pace from which Peacock and Miller will benefit.

Subs:

Mickey Bell - 6 - More effective than Matt Hill in fullback. Always keen to overlap and get into attacking positions, which enhanced our attacking options thus improving the teams performance. But not particularly good in defence and nowhere near as good on the ball as he used to be. Still has the brains, but not the touch.

Marc Goodfellow - 7 - Can't argue with his performance. More direct than anyone else at the club, and the sort of player we need. Always keen to run at players, and is very good at beating them too. Not afraid to shoot, passed well and headed home with ease. Not sure I want to say this, but in attacking style, he reminds me of Murray, only left footed.

Leroy Lita - 6 - Added pace to the front line and did ok, but failed to get particularly involved with the scheme of things. Offered another outlet but not given the ball to feet enough, like the man he replaced (Miller) and the man he joined upfront (Peacock).

Summary:

Not the best performance of the season by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt we did enough to win the match in the 2nd period and Goodfellows goal was well deserved, as was the win.

I felt we missed Wilkshires attacking flair on and off the ball. Tinnion and Doherty leave our centre midfield a little too deep at times, where Wilkshire is always keen to get up to support the front men and give to feet more, something we really lacked today.

Another decent solid away performance, if not spectacular, and our performances are starting to get the results they merit, even if a last minute does sound a little lucky, we deserved it.

I said a couple of weeks ago we must win the next 3 games to keep up the momentum and keep confidence in the players running high, and continue to restore belief amongst the fans. Stage 1 is complete, but we must build on this and it would be nice to see a really comfortable win against Chesterfield next Saturday infront of what will hopefully be a good crowd.

On another note, as one of Wilson's critics on the forum, he got it right today. His substitutions were good, his introduction of Goodfellow left him with plenty of time to make an impact, and I had no complaints with the starting 11. A good return all round, we must keep it up.

[Guest lilciderhed]

For me, your rating on Carey is a bit harsh. He tried to link up with Goodfellow, someone who he has never played with before, and I'm not even sure if they trained together.

So Carey made a few mistakes on the ball and was lazy at times, but so was Miller and Tinnion.

In my opinion, other than that, I think your spot on.

Towards the middle of the second half County auctually looked like scoring, and at that point the same feelings of another draw were flooding back. I'm so, so glad that in the last 15, City proved me wrong.

[Swindon Hater]

I also think your rating of Louis Carey is wrong, it's too high.

He has dissapointed me this season, he has looked lazy, slow and unintrested, maybe because he knows he going to start every game, I think if he was dropped for a few games he'd be back on form but Wilson seems to have him in his good books.