Maroon Blue
First XI⭐
I think when we go down to ten men, Wordsworth should be substituted as the workrate in midfield has to go up, not down. Amos is a perfect replacement. He hasn't got experience, but more than makes up for it with his tackling and effort. He can also pick a pass from what I have seen. He won't do worse than Wordsworth when down to ten men.
Hindsight is great, what if Amos came on and the result the same. we would have people moaning that we threw an inexperienced kid on and withdrew one of our most potent goal scoring threats. Woody was quiet yesterday but could have easily put a free kick in the top corner given the opportunity.
I would have replaced him with John White and gone 3 at the back, pushed the full backs further forward as wing backs. That is what they are best at, we would have had width, Lenny would have had a smaller area to cover and not have to run all over the pitch and we may have got something out of the game.
Demetriou was at fault for the goal, carbon copy of Port Vale away second goal. He let the smallest Millwall player head in at the far post because he ball watches when the cross comes in and over his head and does not go to the ball and attacker. John White would have stepped back and if not got his head to it, he would have put off Onyedinma.
Jakob Sokolik bawled at Demetriou for that at Port Vale and never got a look in again after a full blown argument between the two on the pitch. Maybe Atkinson would have been thsir as an extra body if he had not been sent off? Hindsight is a wonderful thing as said earlier. Not wishing to moan about Demetriou as I prefer him as an attacking threat to JW and the positives outweigh the negatives, but JW is a better defender.
Ted was routed to the spot, was not the most powerful header and he maybe could have moved his feet to get to it. He seemed caught by surprise that the ball was headed back towards him and palmed at it as it bounced past him.
We must move on now and ensure Oxford do not also overtake us with victory on Tuesday.