Brechin City v Dundee United

[Granny Danger]

If all Aberdeen fans were so passionate about Brechin they would be in the top flight.

 

[captainkev]

Hey folks, long time no posts but I've been meaning to come back on here and get into the swing of things here for a while. Last night was actually the first United match I've been able to attend in person since our exit from the Challenge cup back in October/November so I've felt lacked anything worth commenting on to justifying coming back.

Anyway, to tell the truth I think that's possibly the most underwhelming victory I've ever seen, especially given the margin of victory in the end. 

I've thankfully been spared through work of most of the horrors of Laszlo's tenure, but yesterday in the first half was alarmingly bad. It seemed we could barely string a set of passes together and were insisting on playing down the left wing despite the fact both Robson and McMullan were utterly hopeless. Robson in particular was caught out leaving acres of space down his area and we were probably fortunate that Brechin's confidence at this point must be rock bottom as a more confident team might have punished us there, so frequently did it occur.

My first instinct over Gillespie's tackle was that it was red, that the referee only produced a yellow probably indirectly turned the game in our favor.  Call me cynical but without that booking I doubt Laszlo would have subbed Gillespie for McDonald and our perfomance would not have improved drastically. I'm far from a fierce advocate for 4-4-2 as a formation but it was fairly pathetic to be playing with two sitting midfielders plus Stanton with just a lone striker against a team that hadn't won a game all season. I've popped on here recently and noticed a fair bit of criticism of McDonald, but I thought his introduction last night was very beneficial to our attacking play with Stanton dropping deeper. His second goal was the pick of the bunch following some genuinely decent build up. 

I'm not a big fan of Mikkelson, but he did put a good shift in yesterday, even with a lack of decent support in the first half. It was good to see Fraser grab himself a goal again. There's unquestionably talent there but his injuries combined with the general mess that United have been the past 3 years or have meant he's been able to just drift along, rarely pushing himself to reach his full potential. Moshni looked as comfortable as I've heard others saying he's been in other games. If we'd been capable of putting in a decent corner prior to the last minutes he might have gotten more than the one goal.

So aye, we won 5-0 and I'm still not happy. I expect the Brechin fans are deeply sympathetic.

[Granny Danger]

8 minutes ago, captainkev said:

Hey folks, long time no posts but I've been meaning to come back on here and get into the swing of things here for a while. Last night was actually the first United match I've been able to attend in person since our exit from the Challenge cup back in October/November so I've felt lacked anything worth commenting on to justifying coming back.

Anyway, to tell the truth I think that's possibly the most underwhelming victory I've ever seen, especially given the margin of victory in the end. 

I've thankfully been spared through work of most of the horrors of Laszlo's tenure, but yesterday in the first half was alarmingly bad. It seemed we could barely string a set of passes together and were insisting on playing down the left wing despite the fact both Robson and McMullan were utterly hopeless. Robson in particular was caught out leaving acres of space down his area and we were probably fortunate that Brechin's confidence at this point must be rock bottom as a more confident team might have punished us there, so frequently did it occur.

My first instinct over Gillespie's tackle was that it was red, that the referee only produced a yellow probably indirectly turned the game in our favor.  Call me cynical but without that booking I doubt Laszlo would have subbed Gillespie for McDonald and our perfomance would not have improved drastically. I'm far from a fierce advocate for 4-4-2 as a formation but it was fairly pathetic to be playing with two sitting midfielders plus Stanton with just a lone striker against a team that hadn't won a game all season. I've popped on here recently and noticed a fair bit of criticism of McDonald, but I thought his introduction last night was very beneficial to our attacking play with Stanton dropping deeper. His second goal was the pick of the bunch following some genuinely decent build up. 

I'm not a big fan of Mikkelson, but he did put a good shift in yesterday, even with a lack of decent support in the first half. It was good to see Fraser grab himself a goal again. There's unquestionably talent there but his injuries combined with the general mess that United have been the past 3 years or have meant he's been able to just drift along, rarely pushing himself to reach his full potential. Moshni looked as comfortable as I've heard others saying he's been in other games. If we'd been capable of putting in a decent corner prior to the last minutes he might have gotten more than the one goal.

So aye, we won 5-0 and I'm still not happy. I'm expect the Brechin fans are deeply sympathetic towards this attitude...

Good to see an old face back.  McDonald has improved in recent weeks though he was ineffective last Saturday.  Given his career he probably wants to go out on a high and may inspire others.  We have a few ‘confidence players’ who perform better when we are on the front foot; also Robson needs someone to tell him he’s not a superstar.

Mohsni has made a real difference and is the closest we have had to a genuine leader/organiser on the park since Andy Webster.

 

[kingjoey]

55 minutes ago, MacArab said:

Really don’t know if you are on the wind up tbh.

You cannot say for sure that even had we gone down to 10 men, we might not have still won the game, and that because a ref saw things differently from you and the Brechin Manager, that decision cost Brechin the game. They had plenty of opportunity to win it after the decision.

Dods thought it was a red, undoubtedly Csaba thought a yellow was the correct decision. This is just how footaball works.

Take Murray getting sent off for diving and denied a stonewall pen for United in the first leg of the playoff final last year. Arguably, this could be viewed as having cost us propmotion. That being said we still had the second leg to win it and didn’t. Just have to get on with it.

Take your own team. The Ref’s decision not only cost you the game but about £250k and a Champions Leage qualifying place, by allowing an injury time Motherwell goal when the correct decision was a foul  on the Keeper. That is a proper example where a poor decision cost a game.

A couple of things.

1. As well as me and the Brechin manager knowing it should have been a red card last night, so did the majority, if not all, of the Brechin fans around me.

2. The referee’s decision against Motherwell all those years ago did not cost us a Champions League spot, it cost the players two weeks holiday as we had to start the Europa League two weeks earlier than it would have if we had finished second. 

[Granny Danger]

14 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

A couple of things.

1. As well as me and the Brechin manager knowing it should have been a red card last night, so did the majority, if not all, of the Brechin fans around me.

2. The referee’s decision against Motherwell all those years ago did not cost us a Champions League spot, it cost the players two weeks holiday as we had to start the Europa League two weeks earlier than it would have if we had finished second. 

Shock, shock, horror, horror.

Shock, shock, horror.

 

[captainkev]

36 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Good to see an old face back.  McDonald has improved in recent weeks though he was ineffective last Saturday.  Given his career he probably wants to go out on a high and may inspire others.  We have a few ‘confidence players’ who perform better when we are on the front foot; also Robson needs someone to tell him he’s not a superstar.

Mohsni has made a real difference and is the closest we have had to a genuine leader/organiser on the park since Andy Webster.

 

Thanks GD, it's appreciated. 

Given Robson thinks it's fine be filmed driving around while  consuming radioactive looking drinks, I have a feeling any advice in that vein will probably go unheeded.

As for the confidence players remark, you've more or less summed up Billy King for me.  Doesn't contribute unless everything's going our way. 

Regarding Moshni I'm not sure I'd agree about his leadership qualities on the basis of my limited viewing so far.  It seemed to me last night he was  frequently shouting at his teammates about their mistakes or bellowing at the bench about something he'd seen done badly.  It's good that he's passionate and wants to do well but he may need to express himself in ways that doesn't feel like he's berating his teammates. Although that said it's probably still more productive than Flood's encouragement and instruction as captain, which as far as I could tell just consisted of repeating the phrase "Heads up lads/Jamie" until he was subbed.

[Dens83]

Shock, shock, horror, horror.
Shock, shock, horror.
 

Lucky for us the ref wasn't a Brechin fan.

[CITY1974]

Thanks GD, it's appreciated. 
Given Robson thinks it's fine be filmed driving around while  consuming radioactive looking drinks, I have a feeling any advice in that vein will probably go unheeded.
As for the confidence players remark, you've more or less summed up Billy King for me.  Doesn't contribute unless everything's going our way. 
Regarding Moshni I'm not sure I'd agree about his leadership qualities on the basis of my limited viewing so far.  It seemed to me last night he was  frequently shouting at his teammates about their mistakes or bellowing at the bench about something he'd seen done badly.  It's good that he's passionate and wants to do well but he may need to express himself in ways that doesn't feel like he's berating his teammates. Although that said it's probably still more productive than Flood's encouragement and instruction as captain, which as far as I could tell just consisted of repeating the phrase "Heads up lads/Jamie" until he was subbed.

Having seen Mohsni in action when Sevco were down the leagues he was a complete fanny .Giving City fans the 1 0 sign when they scored we equalised soon enough that day. I don t think he understood the gulf between the teams on and off the park .
Then seeing him last night he played sensibly and with a smile on his face.More mature all round

[kingjoey]

12 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Shock, shock, horror, horror.

Shock, shock, horror.

 

I’m sure that you’re  a similar age to me, but you are really easy to wind up. 

[Granny Danger]

38 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I’m sure that you’re  a similar age to me, but you are really easy to wind up. 

I didn’t fight in two world wars to take that sort of abuse on the internet thingy.

 

[kingjoey]

5 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

I didn’t fight in two world wars to take that sort of abuse on the internet thingy.

 

I’m obviously a tad older, as I also have the Boer War on my CV. 

[Granny Danger]

2 hours ago, kingjoey said:

I’m obviously a tad older, as I also have the Bore War on my CV. 

FTFY

 

 

 

 

 

I thought that one was pretty obvious.