Same old, same old...

From was a promising first twenty minutes we quickly reverted back to our sluggish former self and I think it's fair to say that the last ten minutes encapsulated the whole of last season. However, despite all of the negatives there are positives we can take out of the game. Reid and Tomkins shone as a pairing throughout and right up until the end dealt with the ever present threat of Earnshaw and Miller not to mention any ball that was pumped into the half was met with their heads. Illunga impressed me and seems to have come on leaps and bounds from last season where he thought he was playing basketball rather than football however I feel he is more suited to a left winger rather than a left back. It's evident that after today's performance the left back area needs strengthening.Taylor was our best player by a mile and seemed to be the only player willing to take a shot from distance. Infact it was a good overall team performance however as per usual we just lacked that cutting edge. Parker was absent and not his usual self throughout and Nolan seemed to go quiet for periods of the game. 4-5-1 was arguably the wrong formation to use - Piquionne and then Cole looked isolated in the lone striker role and with the arrival of Carew yesterday it seems difficult to imagine us lining up any other way against Doncaster next Saturday. The need for a smaller, pacey and proven goalscorer was evident as neither Cole or Piquionne looked like scoring our outpacing the Cardiff back four.

What we have to remember however that this was as much as experiment for Allardyce more than anything as it was his first competitive game in charge. Admittedly he got the formation wrong but if we keep a hold of Parker how else is he going to incorporate he, Nolan, Noble and Collison into a four man midfield? The arrival of Carew in my opinion is necessary and will only develop the team and not hinder it as other fans are seeming to suggest and also as I've said before he's a perfect replacement for the possible outward bound Cole and not to mention he's a Premier League quality striker it makes it even more of a coup. There is obvious room for improvement and I think these areas need to be attended to before the end of the transfer window otherwise come the end of the season when legs start to tire even more we will see even more of the same. What many of us are failing to remember is that this was the first game of forty six which means that there is plenty of time for improvement and fine-tuning, it's if this result happened mid-season there would be cause for concern. Still, I'm remaining optimistic and looking forward to Aldershot on Tuesday. Come on You Irons!