And there I’ve been on cloud nine thinking we’d won😉
You take me too literally 😂
And there I’ve been on cloud nine thinking we’d won😉
Not really, but we do tend to have the same 💩sense of humour lolYou take me too literally 😂
I thought the opposite, my first reaction was yellow but having seen it again Barky would clearly have reached it first before the keeperMy immediate reaction was red for the denying a goalscoring opportunity - but, on reflection, maybe Barkhuizen had pushed it too far ahead and the keeper would have got there.
(Not having a go at you here California)Fucking Rafferty I'm a big fan but he's got the whole of the pitch in front of him and knocks a ball inside.
Get the lad off and lets fucking go!
Apart from the sending off we got no help from the ref today.Just seen the highlights.
How on this earth the referee thought that wasn’t a penalty on Sinclair I don’t know.
Pathetic officiating
Barky is an amazing finisher provided he doesn't have time to thinkApart from the sending off we got no help from the ref today.
We really did have to fight for ourselves.
Great strike from Barky, he really hit it true.
(Not having a go at you here California)
But, Rafferty - A defensive full back remember (so primarily a defender and clearly not a wing back - which I'm sure AN has either worked out by now or probably knew when he bought him) seems to take a disproportionate amount of stick. I expect that he is not assigned the same attacking role as Fisher - he's a different player. PNE do not have 2 Fishers. If Fisher is as good as some think, then I suspect the money isn't available to buy another one of him.
Rafferty's good defensive, positional and containment play is often ignored and any on the ball errors are magnified in their and documented on this forum by his detractors. I suspect they can only judge a player based on his play when in possession of the ball. Lots of what defenders do does not involve touching the ball and so some people don't see that so don't value it.
In the game today, a game where we had 75% possession and against 10 men for 82% of the game, I don't think his role was that critical but it seems some think the left back role is/was pivotal in PNE's inability to capitalise in that situation. I don't think we did much down the right either.
There are other players in the team who are deemed untouchable and who escape criticism. If we had 75% possession for 77 minutes against 10 men - what the f*ck were our midfield/forward players doing with the ball?
Today Rafferty managed to play a role in the sending off and made a goal-saving challenge in the first half. Had Fisher done that, some people would have said that he was was great because he had "shithoused' us a one man advantage, was a top defender in the league and was 'Man-of-the-Match'. Fisher was totally crap today and escaped the roasting others would have got had they been so ineffective.
Him and a few others.
Fisher's crossing was definitely dreadful today but I wouldn't say he was "totally crap". It's not like he defended poorly (not that the defenders had much to do).(Not having a go at you here California)
But, Rafferty - A defensive full back remember (so primarily a defender and clearly not a wing back - which I'm sure AN has either worked out by now or probably knew when he bought him) seems to take a disproportionate amount of stick. I expect that he is not assigned the same attacking role as Fisher - he's a different player. PNE do not have 2 Fishers. If Fisher is as good as some think, then I suspect the money isn't available to buy another one of him.
Rafferty's good defensive, positional and containment play is often ignored and any on the ball errors are magnified in their and documented on this forum by his detractors. I suspect they can only judge a player based on his play when in possession of the ball. Lots of what defenders do does not involve touching the ball and so some people don't see that so don't value it.
In the game today, a game where we had 75% possession and against 10 men for 82% of the game, I don't think his role was that critical but it seems some think the left back role is/was pivotal in PNE's inability to capitalise in that situation. I don't think we did much down the right either.
There are other players in the team who are deemed untouchable and who escape criticism. If we had 75% possession for 77 minutes against 10 men - what the f*ck were our midfield/forward players doing with the ball?
Today Rafferty managed to play a role in the sending off and made a goal-saving challenge in the first half. Had Fisher done that, some people would have said that he was was great because he had "shithoused' us a one man advantage, was a top defender in the league and was 'Man-of-the-Match'. Fisher was totally crap today and escaped the roasting others would have got had they been so ineffective.
Him and a few others.
Fair points.I appreciate the post, you may not know this but I've been a defender of Rafferty throughout his time with us, whilst others simply don't like him at all and will never praise a decent performance from him, and there's been plenty - but too few at deepdale.
He was very poor I thought by his own standards today and I appreciate where you're coming from but when we need to break these teams down we can't be playing safe square balls to get rid of the ball and because we don't want to take any responsibility.
I cant give credit for being involved with a sending off also, there's literally nothing about that sort of circumstance which is praiseworthy, but it is a good point that if it was fisher it probs would be highly praised and described in some sort of exciting way, no doubt about it. But fisher is the best fullback at the club by a large distance no doubt about it.
This ^^. Played some quality balls
I get that, really. But with 75% possession over 10 men for 77 minutes, Rafferty’s less advanced positioning on the left - alone - cannot explain our inability to put games like that to bed.The issue is, for Rafferty, that when they sit 10 men behind the ball, we need our full backs to push up and provide width, to stretch the play. If he doesn't do that, it makes us much easier to defend against, they simply outnumber our attackers.
I've had a similar debate, I think it was with @sedgwick__7, that it's unreasonable to have a go at Rafferty for not being able to do things which he frankly cannot do, were agreeing.Fair points.
No I wasn’t ‘praising’ the sending off thing (Raff was genuinely injured and it was, after all, a dangerous challenge) I was just making the point that had that been Fisher, there would have been praise from some for him ‘winning an advantage’ over the opposition in that situation. It’s the nonesense that adds to his ‘legend’. Some fans like that, I just don’t really.
Fisher apparently grabbed someone’s Gonads today (I missed the incident on IFollow) and I suspect it was the incident that drew the most posts in the game! if he did, that’s just Idiotic and risked a booking or worse for nothing.
Rafferty isn't that kind of player and the skills he has are more within what the Laws of the game permit.
Fishers good. One of our better players at his best. But he’s overrated by his fans. If he’s genuinely as good as some think and we are as average as we appear to be (well at the moment at least 😔) then no doubt he’ll be gone in January. But I don’t think that will happen (thankfully).
There are reasons he’s at PNE.
Yes, and my argument was that firstly not all criticism is personal or "having a go". And when a player has limitations, they will be commented upon, especially when the things people want Rafferty to do, which he can't, aren't actually that drastic or things that require world class ability.I've had a similar debate, I think it was with @sedgwick__7, that it's unreasonable to have a go at Rafferty for not being able to do things which he frankly cannot do, were agreeing.
Ok maybe ‘crap’ was overstating Fisher’s performance today or was at least shorthand for ‘very ineffective’’. His crossing at least was certainly very, very poor.Fisher's crossing was definitely dreadful today but I wouldn't say he was "totally crap". It's not like he defended poorly (not that the defenders had much to do).
He was playing as a third centre back in the second half yet was still getting forward and attempting to put balls into the box. That's the type of aggression and energy we need from our full backs in home games against deep blocks, and none of our other full backs offer that. That's why people think he is so important, even if he end product wasn't good today. Perhaps Earl could offer something similar, but Neil clearly has no intention of using him at the moment.
I suspect this debate will rumble on and on and on until we eventually go into the transfer market for a full back. My view on it has always been that I don't doubt Rafferty or Hughes' work rates or competence off the ball, but at Deepdale when we have a load of possession and the other team are sat back, we need full backs who offer far more in possession than they do. Fisher is someone who can do that, Earl we don't really know. I would like to see Neil pressed/questioned on this a bit more because he whinges about a lack of balance at the back yet is leaving a left back on the bench who's just signed a new contract.
As for the rest of the team I agree there are a couple of other players aside from our full backs who struggle when we have all of the possession. That said whilst it was largely dire today we did create a couple of very good chances late on in the second half to finish things off. Pearson made a difference.
Fair points again.I've had a similar debate, I think it was with @sedgwick__7, that it's unreasonable to have a go at Rafferty for not being able to do things which he frankly cannot do, were agreeing.
But taking everything into consideration I thought he was below his usual standard today, few things yeah he's no left peg but had chance to cross but pissed about gave it to Sinclair who gave it him back and he floated the ball out of play for a goal kick. His corners all of them were shite, no pace on the cross, always just floated into an area, numerous opportunities with no opponent near him to drive the ball up the left but shit out and cut back inside for an easy pass.
He's no good for us at home, doesn't have the skills to contribute to the attacks. Where as Huddersfield qpr reading he was fucking brilliant, solid, and did exactly what we needed.