Has been pretty quiet on here, hardly a mention of the last 3 friendlies. My take:
Sheffield: Looked good going forward in the first half and should of have had the game out of sight, but looked a bit dodgy at the back. Second half tightened up at the back but lost the cutting edge going forward until we brought SWD on, he linked up well with Semple several times and we nicked the win. Pretty unconvincing but still got the win. Lots of changes made throughout the game and don't think we ever had more than 6 first teamers on the pitch at the same time. So bearing that in mind a good workout. Thought Hunter had a good game particularly and has lots of potential even if he isn't the finished article. Butch did ok in goal but probably could of made more of an attempt at their second. Cully had a bit of a mare and was imo at fault for both goals. DD's equaliser was a foul not spotted by the officials.
Stamford: Carried on the lacklustre performance from Sheffield, scored with the first chance from either side. Beeson gave the trialist LB Clayton had a bit of a torrid night, can't see him being up to BSN where he come up against a better class of player than Bees. Both Stamford goals came from mistakes by said LB. Not many positives, DD carrying on his good form and getting another from his head, Harry Dean did well when he came on and that's about it. Again a mix of first team and youth/fringe/trialists. We did have a spell of pressure from the start of the second half until they scored, good possession football but no real cutting edge. Very below par performance, hopefully got it out the way now and we have no repeats when the real stuff gets underway. Also DD coming off injured was another negative.
Belper today: Played pretty much the first team, a very much improved performance, scored 3 and created a stack more chances. As has been evident all pre-season we are trying to play through teams a lot more with far less emphasis on the long ball. Looked very effective today, an unfortunate injury to Suarez in the first minute meant Semple came on and Newsh was pushed upfront with Weir Daley. This actually suited our new more passing style having plenty of pace and skill up top with no big man to hit. Weir-Daley had a terrific game and he seemed to be at the centre of everything going forward. I actually think we may have stumbled on a different type of attacking option which we could do a lot worse than adopting. Suarez's injury looked pretty bad with his arm in a sling. That apart has been a decent day.
