Thursday 19 May 2011

Goals And Drama Galore

Today's blog is just going to be a quick round up of a few football related stories/issues.

First up i have to congratulate Swansea and Reading on getting to the Play Off final. As much as i'd have loved Forest to get there in Swansea's place, they were the deserved victors, both over the course of the two legs and during the season as a whole.

It's frustrating because for the second half of the game on Monday we looked at least the match of Swansea and so nearly took the game to extra time, but over the 180 minutes Swansea deserved to win. They play some really nice football and in Sinclair, Dyer and Borini have arguably the best front line in the league. I'll write a more extensive post about where i think Forest go from here at some point over the next couple of weeks but for now i just want to focus on praising Swansea.

Reading also definitely deserve their place in the final after seeing off Cardiff relatively easily on Tuesday. Shane Long is a real threat and Cardiff failed to make their dominance of possession count so should have little in the way of complaints about being eliminated. It was disappointing to see sections of the Cardiff fans react so poorly to the result, spoiling the last few minutes of the game by throwing flags and other items at any Reading player who went too close to the side of the pitch. Losing in the Play Off semi-finals is a horrible feeling, believe me i know, but if as happened to both them and Forest this week, they are beaten by a side which is simply better then you have to show a bit of grace in defeat.

In League One Huddersfield are through to the final after a great two-legged tie against Bournemouth. It finished 4-4 on aggregate before the Terriers won the penalty shoot out 4-2. It was tough on Bournemouth who played exceptionally well, especially considering they were only promoted to League One last year, but they can still be very proud of the season they've had.

The second game concludes tonight with MK Dons travelling to Peterborough to try and protect a 3-2 lead. Peterborough finished the league with the highest number of goals scored anywhere in the top 4 leagues of English football with 106 goals, but seeing as they also conceded more goals than anyone in the top 6 of League One it seems almost certain that they'll attack MK Dons from the very start.

I'm personally looking forward to both those Play Off Finals as Swansea V Reading and Huddersfield V Peterborough/MK Dons are games with an awful lot of promise and plenty of attacking potential. So it'll probably be two dire 1-0 wins then.

One final point is that West Ham keep talking about trying to get a new manager in sooner rather than later but i think that's a mistake. Surely in their current position it's better to take their time and make sure they get the best man for the job rather than a panicked replacement. On that note I think Martin O'Neill and Paul Lambert would be fools to go there if offered the job, they're both good quality managers with better prospects than that and there seems to be some real issues with how the club is run at board level (just look at the whole fiasco earlier this year where even Avram Grant thought he was being replaced and the deals were done, only for him to see out the season as manager).

The song today is from a band i've mentioned on here before. They're called 'The Crookes' after the area of Sheffield that they formed in and they've got a good traditional Indie sound with some songs showcasing a very 'Smiths'-esque sound. That isn't particularly apparent on this song but over the course of an album is clear to hear.

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