I know it is a bit late, but with this, that and the other now is the first chance I have had to look back at the reaction to our ‘spanking’ at Palace – and it WAS a spanking regardless as to what Steve Cotterill might have said…
Ok, we had a ‘few’ chances – with our own players sometimes clearing the ball off the line for Palace – and were ‘perhaps’ denied a goal by an incorrect offside call, I have seen no replays at this point, and ‘seemed’ to have a goal that was a mile offside given against us – all of which Cotterill has argued – and feels gave the game an unfair reflection, but I am not convinced that he is entirely right: ‘there were two decisions that I can’t see how the ref and linesman came to them.
‘I’ve just been told Nugent’s goal was onside, and two minutes later their goal is blatantly offside.
‘They go 2-1 up and have a spring in their step. And before that we were the better team.
‘What’s the point speaking to the ref? You end up getting fined and they laugh at you so what’s the point?’
Again, and as for the penalty near the end – I had completely lost my train of thought, and basically interest in the ‘on-the-field’ actions, by that point – he felt that it was not a penalty either: ‘I’ve also asked Michael Brown ‘was it a penalty, did you touch him’? And he said ‘no’
All in all he did not feel that a 4-1 defeat was a fair result: ‘and we look like we’ve come here and had our backsides smacked. No way was that a 4-1!’
I have to say that I probably agree with Cotterill as 4-1 was not a fair result in some ways, it ‘probably’ should have been 4-0 as our goal was virtually handed to us on a plate – they may as well have scored it for us…
We were totally poor, void of any real idea and – I am not laying into Cotterill unfairly, who I guess he has to say such things as ‘it being an unfair reflection of the game’ and/or ‘we deserved more’ his tactical moves, or lack of them, leave plenty to be desired.
I, and to be fair I do not think I am alone as most fans that were also at Selhurst would agree, we were awful and deserved the beating we got!
PLAY UP POMPEY!
