Dazed Review – Scunthorpe vs Hull

A trip out to scunthorpe and to be honest you really appreciate how far we have come from visiting grounds like this week in week out … small , no ambition ……. should they ever go up from league 1 they will be in trouble financially never mind everything else …. will say something … they have done well to get where they are and we were to see glimpses of why they are there today !!!

Before the kick off i was mightily impressed with the way the lads warmed up … I can imagine a lot of people maybe did not take too much notice of last seasons and compared it to this years but having played semi pro sport ice hockey for 11 yrs until injury forced me out i like to watch all aspects of the game before included …

Also placing water round the edge of the pitch so players could access was a great touch by the fitness coach and he got a great round of applause as he walked by !!!

The warm up began with simple warm up work to get the heart rate up nicely and then the team were split into two main groups .. forwards and attacking midfielders and defenders … the defense then worked on control and heading and the forward type players (including midfield) worked on shooting … the other bit part players in the side and subs just helped the others passing the ball and the like .. the guy out there with them really knows his stuff and I think this is vastly improved over the last seasons !! this will set us good in the long term …

The match starts and Marney almost had a dream start with a good chance inside 20 seconds … if only he had hit it sweetly .. never mind we were looking good … Duffy then comes mightily close with a good header that their keeper only just manages to keep out …

This carried on for the next 20 minutes or so as we played some great attacking football with marney being at the centre of most of it … I noticed on a couple of set plays they played it into space which looked like it was meant for the right winger to come into but France seemed behind the pace on this … think this is due to him not playing any games so far and maybe an understanding with fagan has already been forged ??

Then unfortunately it did not go so good … scunny started targetting Dawson as their outlet to go forward as they must have guessed he would be weak … and how right they were ! he struggles as they placed it to his right foot and knowing he has no right foot to speak of knew exactly what he would do … Dawson had a nightmare day …

Myhills kicking was also very predictable throughout … he 80% went far right to France and 20% went far left to Elliot … this was too predictable and bypassed too many of our team too often …

By now Scunny were well on top and it was almost inevetable that they would score first … which they did with unlucky help from Myhill …

The game to be honest had become too much a long ball game which we did not look very good at .. a few players looked too hassled and as a result hoofed the ball at first oppourtunity … Dawson and Lynch were most guilty of this …

Half time and well bit fed up at this point … reminded me of so many games last year …

Second half begins and just starts to drift along the same way the first did …

Paynter (not welsh like announced) came on for Burgess who i thought did ok to be honest … Thelwell came on for Lynch as well ….

Second half Thelwell and Dawson were kept very busy and the trouble was every time we cleared it the ball came straight back at us … they had lively players who did what we had failed to do … that is beat a man …

Then out of the blue Mr Elliot produces a great cross and Paynter equals it with a fantastic header to find the back of the net

Scunthorpe 1 – 1 Hull City

During the second half Fagan looked very good after he came on for Burgess but Paynter looked good also when on for Duffy who was unlucky with a number of offside decisions … all of his good play came from the wing though ..

To be honest the rest of the game dwindled into a mass of subs and delays from an over pompeous ref who thought everyone came to see him the way he acted ….

Right player ratings (theres a few !!)

Myhill – 7 Did command quite well and unlucky with his goal but to be honest he really needs to work on his kicking !

Dawson – 5 Too left footed, the scunthorpe players knew this and played on it, I already miss rogers !

Turner – 8 Great !!! very solid definate first choice with delaney and Coles ending up RB ??

Collins – 7 Not too bad but unforunately couple of silly errors which could have been costly

Lynch – 6 Not the worst but to be honest he will be a squad player at the most this year i reckon

Andrews – 6 Quietly got on with work disapeared too often but seemed to have good understanding with marney when they were on together …

France – 6 Few decent touches but did not look part of the game plan at all due to missing out for a while … just looked especially at set plays that he did not know where to be …

Marney – 8 Great !!! energetic and came close on a nubner of chances , always looked to get forward ! What we missed most of last season … only thing i would question is a number of times he simply jogged on when he could have got a tackle in …

Elliott – 7 Not so good first half seemed out of it at times although came good in second half i reckon, great set up for Paynters goal …

Burgess – 6 Not too bad thought he made good touches and had a good chance first half but obviously do not think he will be CCC material, really needs to go out on loan to get a full season under his belt and bang a few goals in …

Duffy – 7 Did ok so close with early chance and then a number of offside decisions went against him … could not tell but a couple looked very unfair as he looked down the line as the ball was played …

Thelwell – 7 Did well when called upon , did not gel with France that well though ! although better than Lynch …

Fagan – 7 Nice to see two pacey strikers but all his best plays came from either wing backing up claims for him to be on wing rather than out and out forward … still did well though …

Green – 7 Good back up for marney should we need it! imaginative and good passing ! although not on long enough to make massive impact …

Welsh – 6 did ok although not on long enough to comment much, would though like to see him and Marney together …

Fry – 5 Not much to comment on as he did not do enough due to him being on for not enough time to make any impact at all …

Paynter – 7 Nice to see him get a goal, did well while on and great header for the goal …

Best tiger – Marney or Turner close run thing but i think Marney edged it to be honest for his attacking play …

Worst tiger – Dawson, obviously the scunny team knew where to attack to expose him and it worked very well for them as well … too much dependant on his left foot … needs to work on using his right foot maybe a couple of times ???

Ref Watch – 3/10

Very poor … too many silly delays to ‘talk’ to players ! seemed like he thought the crowd were there to see him rather than the teams !!!

Best crowd moment – One hull fan – ‘The closest you will ever get to the championship is on a playstation’, fantastic and fully deserved the applause it got !!!

Final summary

Not a good game all in all and we were shown up badly at times …

I think Its a case of Parky trying new ideas still but i hope that we see better against Villa as, managerless or not, they will pose a bigger threat, one that we need to shape up against friendly or no friendly !!!