Home
JayJay23's match report. As usual I will just write down what comes out. Hopefully it will mostly make sense and be to the benefit of the other people here.
Within the opening couple of minutes Palace had 2 decent openings. Bogdan saved one by pushing it wide for a corner. It was a decent effort. Bolton's general first half play left an awful lot to be desired imho. Palace should have gone in 1-0 up at the break but they missed a header from 6 yards out. It was the clearest chance of the whole game. Bolton did threaten a couple of times in the opening 45 but there was no end product - some sort of chance involving Eagles and KDavies is the best that I can recall but I couldn't tell what happened due to my awful seat position in the crowd. Will have to move. Crystal Palace also had a few other chances which resulted in Bogdan saves in the first half, I can only vaguely recall (my memory is poor). The main feeling I had as I stood at the urine trough at half time was a slight stinging sensation - not really- the main feeling was one of boredom and numbness. All over the park we looked pretty disjointed, passing poor, movement poor, everything poor.
Second half. We started a little more brightly and looked 5 times better than we did in the first half (we were not amazing, just doing better than the first 45). We made some nice passes at times. etained the ball a little better in spells and also looked the more likely to score. Coyle's substitutions of Petrov and Sordell were greeted roundly with applause and, in parts, standing ovations. But maybe Coyle was right not to have been picking them afterall because, to be honest (and as much as I hate to say it), although there was a slight buzz in the ground when Petrov picked up the ball he didn't really achieve much. But then again he simply hasn't had the game time. I suppose he was at least a partial threat. Mark Davies was marginally better in central midfield than on the right. CYL also did not really get up to any sort of useful gear either during his stint.
Bolton relied too heavily on the long ball especially in the first half but resorted to it a lot less in the second half. I think Bogdan may even have responded to the fans who were begging for him to play it wide to the full backs. He tried it once part way into the second half and it worked a charm, as soon as he rolled it out the crowed cheered (pretty much the loudest of the day) and we set off on one of our better moves of the day. After that minor success Bogdan opted for the full backs 70% of the time much to the delight of most supporters including myself. And it did result in a slightly more exciting atmosphere and a more engaging period of play. Bolton were looking the better team and the more likely to win (hence the positive attacking changes) until Knight allegedly fouled their man in the box. The resulting penalty sort of killed us and as you know that decision proved key in terms of the result.
Zat Knight played up front for the rest of the game and looked more effective than KD in the air - in fact we should stick him up there more often, he really did win everything. Mark Davies had another good effort at goal and I think was unlucky not to score - it was decent play.
My overall verdict on the game is that something needs to be done about how disjointed we look and how scrappy we are. I think a lot of that is the thinking that a punt towards Davies is a realistic option for attacking play - and it really is not. I would be interested to see if the team mentality would change if that option was removed. Having said that KD was one of the better performers from a bad bunch.
Within the opening couple of minutes Palace had 2 decent openings. Bogdan saved one by pushing it wide for a corner. It was a decent effort. Bolton's general first half play left an awful lot to be desired imho. Palace should have gone in 1-0 up at the break but they missed a header from 6 yards out. It was the clearest chance of the whole game. Bolton did threaten a couple of times in the opening 45 but there was no end product - some sort of chance involving Eagles and KDavies is the best that I can recall but I couldn't tell what happened due to my awful seat position in the crowd. Will have to move. Crystal Palace also had a few other chances which resulted in Bogdan saves in the first half, I can only vaguely recall (my memory is poor). The main feeling I had as I stood at the urine trough at half time was a slight stinging sensation - not really- the main feeling was one of boredom and numbness. All over the park we looked pretty disjointed, passing poor, movement poor, everything poor.
Second half. We started a little more brightly and looked 5 times better than we did in the first half (we were not amazing, just doing better than the first 45). We made some nice passes at times. etained the ball a little better in spells and also looked the more likely to score. Coyle's substitutions of Petrov and Sordell were greeted roundly with applause and, in parts, standing ovations. But maybe Coyle was right not to have been picking them afterall because, to be honest (and as much as I hate to say it), although there was a slight buzz in the ground when Petrov picked up the ball he didn't really achieve much. But then again he simply hasn't had the game time. I suppose he was at least a partial threat. Mark Davies was marginally better in central midfield than on the right. CYL also did not really get up to any sort of useful gear either during his stint.
Bolton relied too heavily on the long ball especially in the first half but resorted to it a lot less in the second half. I think Bogdan may even have responded to the fans who were begging for him to play it wide to the full backs. He tried it once part way into the second half and it worked a charm, as soon as he rolled it out the crowed cheered (pretty much the loudest of the day) and we set off on one of our better moves of the day. After that minor success Bogdan opted for the full backs 70% of the time much to the delight of most supporters including myself. And it did result in a slightly more exciting atmosphere and a more engaging period of play. Bolton were looking the better team and the more likely to win (hence the positive attacking changes) until Knight allegedly fouled their man in the box. The resulting penalty sort of killed us and as you know that decision proved key in terms of the result.
Zat Knight played up front for the rest of the game and looked more effective than KD in the air - in fact we should stick him up there more often, he really did win everything. Mark Davies had another good effort at goal and I think was unlucky not to score - it was decent play.
My overall verdict on the game is that something needs to be done about how disjointed we look and how scrappy we are. I think a lot of that is the thinking that a punt towards Davies is a realistic option for attacking play - and it really is not. I would be interested to see if the team mentality would change if that option was removed. Having said that KD was one of the better performers from a bad bunch.
