Flabio wrote:Accrington deserved the win, the speed they closed us down meant we never really got going.
I posted the following on a Forest Forum:
Watched this with my father in law - he came in at half time.
Explained who he was watching in terms of the first eleven and who was missing - told him we ought to have Grant Holt, Southall and maybe Lester on and Calderwood was playing a dangerous game if he gives the first half lineup more than ten minutes of the second half to find a goal, but that swapping in those three will see us create enough to progress. Looks like I would have been correct based on the difference they made when they came on - Calderwood should have acted a little earlier and he's learned a lesson.
So have we though - the formation isn't sound enough and/or we don't have the depth in squad the historical best form of certain players might suggest. As such, it is probably no bad thing we are out of the cup, given the injuries to our two best players - we need a healthy non-overworked ideal first eleven to win this league and cups will only sideline the odd important pair of legs.
Sky's commentary was embarrassing though - all about the relative histories of the teams - the usual media 1966-esque bulls**t. The truth of the matter is we have about 12 players who together could turn anyone over and we only had about half of them on the pitch. That's why Accrington won. If they'd had to defend against us first half instead of just marking Clingan out of the game to cut the strikers off, we'd have seen a very different match.
Calderwood's first proper cock-up - not having proper wingers.
I'd also say that if we can't start without Breckin or Morgan we can't start without Grant Holt or Southall.
