A business coach once told me. madness can be defined as doing the same things consistently and expecting to get a different result. On Sunday I put his words into action and made the decision to use turnstile 2 at the North Stand entrance gate. so simple but so effective a simple change transformed our fortunes.
Yes it helped that the team played with passion, intensity and no little skill. Klasnic had his best ever 90 minutes scoring 2 and creating 2 more. It has been 7 long months since Stoke steamrollered us at Wembley and just maybe that has been assigned to history by this perfomance.
Owen Coyle deserves credit for making changes, as begged for Petrov was benched, his replacement Mark Davis was excellent, Robinson was good going forward, but still looks vunerable against pace. Kevin Davies was back to his best, completely dominating Upson and Woodgate, Muamba was all over the Stoke midfield and with Reo Coker gave us the bite that has been missing for most of the season. Every player stood up and was counted, not least Joe Riley who grew into his Premiership debut, and deserved his standing ovation a minute from time. At 1-0 Jussi pulled off a great reaction save from a Cahill deflection, in recent weeks that would have beaten him and set the alarm bells ringing. Great afternoon at the Reebok, never mind whether Stoke were jet lagged or not, we battered them from minute one and deserved to win in style.
Onwards and upwards has to be the message, do not tinker with a winning formula, I wouldn't mind a different left back who can handle pace, but that is nitpicking. If we play with this intensity and passion we will climb the table, lets start at West Brom.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Crisis - What Crisis
So we find ourselves with 2 wins from 11 games , having just lost consecutive games to Sunderland and Swansea and the team having played like the proverbial drain. In the nearly 50 years of following the Wanderers I cant remember such a run of defeats and yet the majority of fans still have belief in the manager turning the situation around.
Well Sundays game against Stoke is Owens last chance, you can trace the current poor run of form back to the Cup Semi Final ,when only the fans turned up, and Plan A, B , C and D were found to be missing.
Sundays game is the chance for the club, players and management to stand up and show we are the one and only Wanderers and there is a pulse left in the club. Anything less than a win and it will be time for Owen to pack his bags and leave.
Can we show some spirit, and instead of dragging 10 outfield players back for every corner and attacking free kick, with a couple of exceptions we lack pace, and the idea that we are going to counter attack against established premiership teams and pass our way up the pitch is mad. Why not leave at least a couple of players upfield for Stoke to worry about. I would like to see Kakuta given a chance.
The defence has been shambolic, the much vaunted Cahill might has well have left in the Summer, and that seems to have De- stabilised the rest of the defence. We know exactly how Stoke are going to play, they will be strong and competitive and have a couple of decent wingers, the fact that they will be playing their 3rd game in 6 days, and the 22nd game of their season means we should be the fresher side.
Owen Coyle has limited options to change things around, injuries and the lack of cash have been a factor , but the fans minimum expectation is for the players have to play to their potential, the fact that no one player has consistently performed to premiership standard so far this season is why we are in this mess.
The management are paid to get the best they can from the resources available, currently they are failing to do that. I loved Owen Coyle as a player , and want him to succeed as manager of the club, take your chance Owen and go for it on Sunday , we need to bury the spectre of Aprils Semi Final disaster and kick start our season at the same time.
Keep the faith.
Well Sundays game against Stoke is Owens last chance, you can trace the current poor run of form back to the Cup Semi Final ,when only the fans turned up, and Plan A, B , C and D were found to be missing.
Sundays game is the chance for the club, players and management to stand up and show we are the one and only Wanderers and there is a pulse left in the club. Anything less than a win and it will be time for Owen to pack his bags and leave.
Can we show some spirit, and instead of dragging 10 outfield players back for every corner and attacking free kick, with a couple of exceptions we lack pace, and the idea that we are going to counter attack against established premiership teams and pass our way up the pitch is mad. Why not leave at least a couple of players upfield for Stoke to worry about. I would like to see Kakuta given a chance.
The defence has been shambolic, the much vaunted Cahill might has well have left in the Summer, and that seems to have De- stabilised the rest of the defence. We know exactly how Stoke are going to play, they will be strong and competitive and have a couple of decent wingers, the fact that they will be playing their 3rd game in 6 days, and the 22nd game of their season means we should be the fresher side.
Owen Coyle has limited options to change things around, injuries and the lack of cash have been a factor , but the fans minimum expectation is for the players have to play to their potential, the fact that no one player has consistently performed to premiership standard so far this season is why we are in this mess.
The management are paid to get the best they can from the resources available, currently they are failing to do that. I loved Owen Coyle as a player , and want him to succeed as manager of the club, take your chance Owen and go for it on Sunday , we need to bury the spectre of Aprils Semi Final disaster and kick start our season at the same time.
Keep the faith.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Leeds Innovation
Wed 19 Sept 2007 , A big thank you to Doug Sutherland and Ian Jones for the Inaugural Leeds Innovation Odyssey. I was lucky enough to be invited and was inspired enough by a couple of the speakers to create this blog.
The keynote speakers were Dr Heinz Wolff and Euan Semple, the former has become a British Institution, my first memory of him was watching him on the BBC on Young Scientist of Year probably in black and white, and later on the Great Egg Race. I wish I could present half as well as him and without being ageist even at his age of 79 I would rate him as one of the top ten speakers I have heard in my life.
In the afternoon Euan Semple addressed the gathering on the opportunities available to us all through the web. The work Leeds Innovation are carrying out on behalf of the City Council is really impressive, it has the potential for to benefit those citizens who have been deprived access to the new technology.
The keynote speakers were Dr Heinz Wolff and Euan Semple, the former has become a British Institution, my first memory of him was watching him on the BBC on Young Scientist of Year probably in black and white, and later on the Great Egg Race. I wish I could present half as well as him and without being ageist even at his age of 79 I would rate him as one of the top ten speakers I have heard in my life.
In the afternoon Euan Semple addressed the gathering on the opportunities available to us all through the web. The work Leeds Innovation are carrying out on behalf of the City Council is really impressive, it has the potential for to benefit those citizens who have been deprived access to the new technology.
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