[FrogMan]

May 12, 2010
Championship Playoffs semi final, leg 2: at Birmingham (Birmingham 4-6 fav)

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jimmy Nielsen	GK	Very Good	8-7-7-8-7	100%	37	-	6.76
DR		Richard Jackson	D RL	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	93%	18 (1)	-	7.00
DL		Laurent Montoya	D/WB L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-6	93%	30	-	6.83
DC		Ibrahim Tall	D RC	Superb	8-6-8-8-7	95%	47	-	7.19
DC		Willie Kinniburgh	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	95%	41	1	7.00
DMC		Ferrie Bodde	D C, DM	Okay	7-7-6-6-6	96%	26 (16)	-	6.64
MR		Saulius Mikoliunas	AM R	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	94%	34 (3)	4	7.24
ML		Etienne Esajas	AM L	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	93%	45 (3)	4	7.33
AMC		Eric Skora	AM C	Superb	8-8-7-8-6	94%	38	9	7.16
FC		Matt Moussilou	ST	Superb	8-8-8-9-7	94%	17	19	7.94
FC	Unh	Dean Morgan	ST	Very Good	6-7-8-8-6	98%	5 (10)	3	6.67
S1		Bartosz Bialkowski	GK	Okay	7-8-6-7-7	92%	13	-	6.69
S2		Richard Hughes	DM	Very Good	6-6-8-7-6	94%	24 (13)	1	6.62
S3	Wnt	Jonathan Hayes	AM RL	Good	7-7-8-7-6	97%	3 (16)	-	6.89
S4		Jay Simpson	AM R, ST	Good	7-7-6-6-6	96%	12 (21)	7	6.61
S5		Vincent van den Berg	AM R, ST	Superb	8-6-6-6-6	94%	37 (7)	14	6.89
-		James Henry	AM RC	Very Good	7-8-6-8-8	96%	6 (8)	-	6.86
-		Sam Parkin	ST	Superb	8-6-7-8-6	95%	27 (2)	9	6.86
-	Inj	Karim Touzani	SW, D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	64%	43	1	7.07
-		Henri Camara	ST	Very Good	7-6-6-7-8	93%	5 (1)	1	6.83
-	Inj	David Edwards	AM RC	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	67%	12 (4)	1	6.81
-	Wnt	Carl Dickinson	D/WB L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-5	98%	20	-	7.00
-		Byron Moore	AM RL, ST	Very Good	7-7-8-7-6	95%	1 (23)	1	6.88

I decide to start Ferrie Bodde at DMC but will not ask him to man mark in this one. I do tell the guys to mark him tight and to tackle him hard though. In hope of shaking things up up front and because of some fairly pedestrian performances lately, I bench Vincent van den Berg and start Dean Morgan in his place.

It's another rough start for us, down 6(2) to nothing in shots after 18 minutes, but we at least have kept them from scoring so hope is still alive.

Not for long though. In the 24th minute, Garry O'Connor shows me why I should have kept a man in man marking on him as he makes it 0-1, 1-2 on aggregate. Gotta say that the goal didn't come from a freakish run in the open but on a corner kick headed in. After 25 minutes, they are outshooting us 10(4) to 1(0), it's not pretty although we miss a chance to tie it in injury time when Ferrie Bodde's kick goes a hair over the bar.

The halftime score is 1-2 on aggregate but they are outshooting us 15(6) to 4(0).

Jimmy Nielsen saves many more shots in the second half and the score is still unchanged three minutes into injury time when we get one last chance. Sadly, Jay Simpson puts it wide... Final Score: 0-1 (1-2 aggregate)

Match stats:

Birmingham	Statistic	Luton
25	Shots	8
10	On Target	0
15	Off Target	8
53%	Possession	47%
9	Corners	5
21	Free Kicks	14
13	Throw-Ins	10
12	Fouls	17
2	Offsides	4
73%	Passes Completed	59%
43%	Crosses Completed	10%
60%	Tackles Won	72%
69%	Headers Won	38%
2	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0

Team stats:

No.	C	Name	Inf.	Pas	Cmp	Key	Tck	Won	Key	Hea	Won	Key	Int	Run	Off	Fou	Fld	Ast	Sho	Sot	Con	Rat	Gls
1		Jimmy Nielsen		28	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	99	7
2		Richard Jackson		27	10	1	4	2	0	2	2	0	9	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	70	7
28		Laurent Montoya		26	18	3	1	1	0	4	1	1	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	73	7
8		Ibrahim Tall (c)		29	16	0	4	4	1	8	7	3	10	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	82	7
3		Willie Kinniburgh		19	12	0	1	1	0	8	7	2	9	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	79	7
17		Eric Skora	sub 54	14	12	1	1	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	77	7
44		Etienne Esajas		18	10	3	0	0	0	7	1	1	4	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	73	7
5		Ferrie Bodde	sub 78	26	19	0	4	3	0	8	4	2	6	0	0	4	0	0	3	0	74	6
11		Saulius Mikoliunas		26	20	4	0	0	0	3	0	0	4	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	73	7
12		Matt Moussilou		18	13	2	0	0	0	5	0	0	3	2	2	0	4	0	3	0	75	7
7		Dean Morgan	sub 68	12	8	0	0	0	0	7	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	86	6
31		Bartosz Bialkowski
29		Richard Hughes	on 78	3	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	93	6
55		Jonathan Hayes
13		Jay Simpson	on 68	2	2	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	95	6
22		Vincent van den Berg	on 54	7	6	2	2	0	0	5	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	86	7

After 13 match without defeat, our brilliant run has finally come to a halt and byt the same token, our season is over.

I can't find fault to any of the guys although it's a bit sad that we've come to end the season being dominated in such a rude fashion.

The fans were very disappointed with that loss. I just wanna go to the press and tell people to get a grip. We've been beaten by a team that just came down from the Premiership and will likely go right back up, or at least should have finished in the top 2 to go right back up without playing the playoffs.

I'm smilling a bit when I read about a Birmingham player pointing the finger to his manager for his poor choice of team talk. Apparently the winning manager didn't like that his team didn't win by more.

FM