Player ratings

[Ninja Elephant]

Just one thing [MENTION=451]BensGrandad[/MENTION], Dunk was unlucky with the yellow card? He was lucky it was only a yellow, according to some. Personally I thought it was the most obvious yellow card you'll see all season, but it was no more or less.

 

[Kazenga <3]

Calderon had a great game.

This, did nothing wrong the whole match.

 

[BensGrandad]

It happened just in front of us and I thought that it was a solid tackle and certainly no worse than many that went unpunished the fact that Sharp suffered a bad injury is immaterial and shouldn't influence the ref in his decision as that should be based on the tackle as it happened not any subsequent diagnosis or the fact that player stays down.

 

[Seaber]

Although Dicker gave away possession which gave away the goal, I don't think he was poor. However, I think a better system would be as the game ended, with Dicker, Bridcutt and two wingers, or three strikers. Sparrow didn't do badly at all, but was fairly quiet. The defence was very efficient, with only a few lapses, of which one was capitalised on. A game or two more and I think they will be as solid as we can hope for. Shame LuaLua's performance wasn't his best, but all round, well done to the team!

 

[DT Withdean]

It happened just in front of us and I thought that it was a solid tackle and certainly no worse than many that went unpunished the fact that Sharp suffered a bad injury is immaterial and shouldn't influence the ref in his decision as that should be based on the tackle as it happened not any subsequent diagnosis or the fact that player stays down.

Exactly. Didn't see a mob of Doncaster players go after him, or berate the Ref. The extent of injury became more apparent as time went on.
Hopefully O'Driscall & Sharp won't label it malicious.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

It happened just in front of us and I thought that it was a solid tackle and certainly no worse than many that went unpunished the fact that Sharp suffered a bad injury is immaterial and shouldn't influence the ref in his decision as that should be based on the tackle as it happened not any subsequent diagnosis or the fact that player stays down.

You sit in the centre circle, then? I jest, but you were no closer than anyone else, considering it happened fairly centrally on the pitch. I feel I had a good view from right in the centre of the East, no-one was obscuring my view, I saw the whole thing and thought it was a mistimed tackle which didn't get the ball but it wasn't high or particularly dangerous, deffinite yellow card. It doesn't overshadow what was another very good performance from, clearly, a very good young player. I've been saying all week that we don't need another centre half (so long as neither Greer nor Dunk get injured), and Dunk today proved how good he is and that he is ready to play at this level, in this team.

 

[DumLum]

Ankergren 7 - Very solid
Calderon 7 - An absolute rock on the right
Greer 9 - MOM for me
Dunk 8 - Comfortable and composed. El-Abd and Elphick will struggle to break back in.
Painter 6.5 - Solid
Sparrow 6.5 - Solid
Bridcutt 8 - ran the midfield 2nd half
Dicker 5 - Played exactly as he always does. Did ok but gives the ball away in key places and needs to be told that he doesn't have FIFTEEN MINUTES to make decisions.
Lua Lua 5 - Out of the game. Went down easily three or four times.
Barnes 7 - Held the ball up well and linked attack and midfield
Mackail Smith 8 - Superb attitude and superb movement. I like him a LOT

Subs:
Noone 8 - Looked a better prospect than Lua Lua
Buckley 10 - Absolutely a different class

Fans 10 - Sang our hearts out today and were rewarded by some great entertainment.

Ref 3 - Abysmal

Gus 6 - 8 overall for the subs and the tactics, 4 for the silly sending off. We need him on the touchline.

Well done for having the guts to give a sub 10 out of 10. We were losing one nil, Buckley comes on and scores two in fifteen minutes, we win....surley that's a perfect performance?

 

[Albion Robster]

Ankergren - 7 - wasnt tested at all really and what did have, done it with ease
Calderon - 7 - didnt do as much as sometimes does, but tidy all round performance
Painter - 7 - much more like the Painter we know not like the Tottenham game
Greer 7 - solid didnt seem to have many problems with sharp and co
Dunk 9 - Thought he was clear man of the match, just never looked in trouble, from the east stand it didnt look like a bad challenge, and he isnt a dirty player. Quality watch out el abd
Lua Lua - 5 - Disappointing just never seemed to get into the game
Sparrow 6 - Okay - jury is still out with me on sparrow on his day can be amazing but i think a underachiever for us so far
Dicker 5 - Thought he got totally killed in the first half but did have a better 2nd half, the only reason i gave a 5 is the times he gave ball away in very dangerous areas one of which led to the goal
Bridcutt 7 - very poor 1st half and very good 2nd half
Mackell smith 8 - worked his socks off, just wish some of the clear cut chances we had eg 3 and 2 was one on one with keeper would have fell to mackell smith.
Barnes - 6 - worked hard again, held ball up well but a bad finish with keeper

Subs
Noone 8 - Brillant this is the reason we need to play 2 wingers all the time when we changed to 4-4-2 and two wingers we totally controlled the game
Buckley 10 - Perfect performance every time he got the ball caused no end of problems and two excellent goals.

Fans 10 - Brillant atmosphere and the flags looked amazing
Stadium 9 - Queues at station and club house maybe a bit ott but overall very good for our 1st game at new stadium.

Great day out and a great result, but i hope billy sharp will recover soon as a good player, didnt do much really today bar the goal so wouldnt have changed the game much as 2nd half we had a different attitude and closed them down a lot faster and decided to take the game to them.
Great stuff bring on Gillingham on tuesday and then portsmouth on saturday, cant wait.

Spot on Gareth!
I was in the East Stand as well.
Dunk was my MOM given the occassion. I think the sponsors felt obliged to give it to CMS.
Elphick faces some serious competition (Dunk) in getting back into the team infront or El Abd.

 

[Sheebo]

IMO Painter didn't have the best game and Sparrow quite annon - Dicker poor 1st half. Lua Lua perhaps injured but Donny doubled up on him - Barne's played a lot better vs Spurs... Apart from that the rest did well...

 

[st1988]

First post on here so don't shoot me down too much.

Today i thought

Ankergren - 7 - nothing really to do
Calderon - 6 - solid but not some crosses were poor
Painter - 6 - solid though made some errors
Greer 8 - looked very classy today, looked so natural at the higher level, organises defence so well
Dunk 7 - had a great game, though perhaps not as quite as Greer on the ball yet
Lua Lua - 5 - Disappointing - but then man marked out of the game (they clearly had done their homework)
Sparrow 5 - anonymous and when he was noticeable he never looked like influencing the game
Dicker 5 - took too long on the ball and gave it away in dangerous areas
Bridcutt 8 - MOM for me - his movement off and on the ball was unreal (and today especially worked so hard to track back when ball was lost covering full backs etc). His passing and vision excellent. His performance today reminded me of his against Southampton at home last year. He seems so composed on the ball and seems so natural playing at a higher level. Surely prem worthy.
Mackell smith 7 - worked hard but should have scored (love the fact he was last off the pitch)
Barnes - 5 - only think barnes is effective in the box and missed his golden chance today in his one on one

Subs
Noone 8 - changed the game, and his pass to buckley was amazing
Buckley 8 - amazing two goals and should start next game. could play in behind cms

for me we need both a strong centre mid to play alongside Bridcutt and a creative attacking midfielder that can unlock teams.

 

[SirElliotBennett]

Ankergren 7 - Very solid
Calderon 7 - An absolute rock on the right
Greer 9 - MOM for me
Dunk 8 - Comfortable and composed. El-Abd and Elphick will struggle to break back in.
Painter 6.5 - Solid
Sparrow 6.5 - Solid
Bridcutt 8 - ran the midfield 2nd half
Dicker 5 - Played exactly as he always does. Did ok but gives the ball away in key places and needs to be told that he doesn't have FIFTEEN MINUTES to make decisions.
Lua Lua 5 - Out of the game. Went down easily three or four times.
Barnes 7 - Held the ball up well and linked attack and midfield
Mackail Smith 8 - Superb attitude and superb movement. I like him a LOT

Subs:
Noone 8 - Looked a better prospect than Lua Lua
Buckley 10 - Absolutely a different class

Fans 10 - Sang our hearts out today and were rewarded by some great entertainment.

Ref 3 - Abysmal

Gus 6 - 8 overall for the subs and the tactics, 4 for the silly sending off. We need him on the touchline.

I'd go with this.
Although i'd give Dicker a bit higher. He made 2 mistakes but other than that i thought he looked alright.

 

[xenophon]

Ankergren 7
Calderon 7
Greer 8
Dunk 7
Painter 7
Sparrow 6
Bridcutt 7
Dicker 5
Lua Lua 6
Barnes 6
Mackail-Smith 8

Subs:
Noone 9
Buckley 10

 

[darters74]

Thought the back 5 all done their jobs adequately. Dunk looked ultra cool for a youngster. Midfield 3 were ok, Bridcutt the pick of the 3, Sparrow and/or Dicker won't be good enough in this league IMO. Lua Lua, day to forget, Barnes likewise, CMS is different class. Looked like he'd die for all 20,000 of us. Was disappointed Noone didn't start, looks a real threat, and what else can you say about the £1m man, what a fantastic day...........still think we're 2 players short though, definitely need an attacking midfielder and a CB, if only as cover.

 

[sten]

casper-8 his positioning today was good not much chance for the goal,not really tested
caldy-7.5 no surging runs but defensively sound
paints-7 steady caught out badly in 1st half with kll
greer-8 well marshalled the defensive, got better as game went on
dunk-8 looks like another greer comfortable on the ball and passing was spot on not much ariel threat from donny so will be interesting to see how he gets on against other strikers
bridcutt-8 1st half looked average but 2nd was immense is going to be important for us this season when he gets going the whole team seem to step up a gear
sparrow-6.5 1 great run into donny pen area 2nd half was abit quiet but steady
dicker -6.5 2 bad mistakes,but got much better as game went on
lua lua-6 donny done ajob on him and it worked swapping wings didn't help but we all know what he can do and the free kick was going in but for the deflection
barnes-7 gets in great postions,thought he looked better 1st half should have scored
cms-8 great energy yet to see the 1st goal but alround play is superb and will trouble alot of keepers this seaaon with the ball at their feet
subs
noone-9 changed game great runs and energy love him
buckley-9 2 great finishes looks like a real gem unearthed by gus
ref-2 got it wrong too many times
gus-10 his game changing skills immense another master stroke with subs again,passion is superb yes he might of got sent to stands but thats gus

 

[lethaldrizzle]

Kazenga ineffectual but Buckley and Noone both very impressive when they came on. However, I think if it had been one of the other two that started and KLL that came on at half time it might well have been the other way round. Once KLL came off they seemed to lose a bit of focus where they had been concentrating on man-marking him, leaving space for Noone and then Buckley.

With the way we play, holding on to the ball and making the other team chase it, our fast wingers who can run at tired defenders are always going to be a big asset as impact subs. Having THREE talented wingers is amazing. Think we will score a lot of late goals this year.

 

[Seagull over NZ]

Think the criticism of Barnes is a bit misplaced, his movement is really good and his link up play also good. His big chance he did what a lot of strikers do these days and go between the legs of the keeper, had the defender not been covering it would have been a goal. CMS leads the line really well, really strong with his back to goal as well as heading towards the goal.

Liked the look of Dunk a lot, he and Greer looked really good. All very positive signs once we got into the game, I think we will improve a lot as well now we have that first game out of the way.

 

[seagullmouse]

Kazenga ineffectual but Buckley and Noone both very impressive when they came on. However, I think if it had been one of the other two that started and KLL that came on at half time it might well have been the other way round. Once KLL came off they seemed to lose a bit of focus where they had been concentrating on man-marking him, leaving space for Noone and then Buckley.

With the way we play, holding on to the ball and making the other team chase it, our fast wingers who can run at tired defenders are always going to be a big asset as impact subs. Having THREE talented wingers is amazing. Think we will score a lot of late goals this year.

Agree with most of this.

Noone turned the game due to fresh legs but also a bit more vision and getting his head up. Interesting to see who starts the next match, I'd like to see Noone in for Sparrow. May be worth letting KLL come on as impact sub for Buckley next time too.

I think Doncaster played better football than us for first 60 mins, they were more tippy tappy than us and deserved a draw.

Good stuff
Dunk, Greer, CMS, Buckley, Noone, Bridcutt

Ok stuff
Calderon

Bad stuff
Dicker was a worry today, I still also think Painter is slightly too Crumplin-esque, Barnes and Sparrow don't quite cut it for me, Casper looks terrified whenever he's got the ball.

 

[kevtherev]

Makes me laugh when people give Dicker a seven and say he made a couple of mistakes....f*** me, it was his mistake that left Painter out of position, the defence exposed and was it not for Buckley maybe three points and people say"he only made a couple of mistakes!!!!"...on such mistakes games are won and lost and Barnes is just as guilty of missing guilt edged chances, six yards out you just have to be scoreing....Apart from those two a all round good performance once they found there feet.

 

[Langley]

Rugrat, agree 100% with your thread, my thoughts exactly

 

[matthew]

Ankergren 7. Did alright, could of done a little better with the goal
Calderon 6. Average, didn't see much of his attacking threat today
Greer 7. Solid as usual
Dunk 4. Should of been sent off but other than that he was very good
Painter 6. Average
Sparrow 6.Average
Dicker 7. Average.
LuaLua 6.Average (ref didn't help)
Birdcutt 8. Pick of the midfielders as usual MOM
Barnes 7. OK. Should of scored today, lovely flick on set up Noone though
CMS 7.5 Didn't get many chances but chased down really well

Subs:
Noone 8. Made up for his early miss perfectly
Buckley 8. What a signing!