The Brighton game was not one for the football purist. Hell, it wasn't even one for somebody who'll watch any football, just for the sake of watching football. The Hammer's performance has been labelled 'battling' by those most desperate to attach some kind of positivity to a display that was in large portions dire, apart from in the moments when it dipped to execrable.
Am I glad we got the 3 points? Hell yes, of course I am. Am I happy to watch that kind of game in the pursuit of a return to the Premiership? Ummm, not sure. Suggesting that we 'battled' for those 3 points infers that Brighton threw everything at us, wave after wave of attacking, and that only our brave boys throwing their lives on the line in treacherous conditions preserved our goal lead. Brighton didn't throw everything at us. They threw very little at us, and when they did attack we were lucky on both occasions for sharp reactions from Almunia. Aside from those moments, our defence coped comfortably enough with Brighton's occasional forays into our area.
Presumably the 'battling' tag also echoed the weather in which the game was played. Some rain. I don't recall precipitation instantly precluding a game from being entertaining, or even just plain competent. When Brighton did come forward it was mostly by way of one of a myriad of misplaced passes from a spluttering, labouring midfield. I don't recall seeing so many passes going astray, and so little possession from a line-up that packed out the midfield with 5 very able players. Yes, we're missing players, but that is still a team that 'should' shine in the Championship. Last night I'm not even sure someone flicked the 'on switch' let alone allowing us to shine. We looked barely able to produce the basics with any level of competency, and not at any point did we display any class or style.
Nolan took his goal well, and while what originally looked like a piledriver actually ended up being a firmly hit shot that Harper misjudged, it still ended up looking like it belonged to a different game, a better game, a game in which we weren't totally without a plan. There's winning 'ugly' and then there's 'contriving to win despite yourselves'. Make no mistake, last night WAS ugly although devoid of the long ball mentality that we've shown earlier in this campaign. We kept the ball on the floor. It didn't actually make any difference, as the result tended to be the same as an aimless punt up field, with the ball ending up at the feet of an opposition player.
Whether by accident, or design while we wait for Matty Taylor to be fit again, we played without any width whatsoever. Frustrating, bearing in mind it was a 5 man midfield. What we got instead was congestion, and endless attempts to thread the ball through the middle to an out of sorts looking Carew. Eventually we stopped bothering to thread the ball anywhere, and shrunk deeper and deeper back into our own half, only alleviated when Sears showed some desire to get forward when introduced later in the second half.
Highlights? Diop looked solid and broke up an awful lot of play before succumbing to a dead leg. Reid and McCartney did a lot of important work at the back. Noble put himself about, to little reward it has to be said, but soldiered on after discovering a new angle at which to display his thumb. Ouch. Almunia was largely untroubled, but stayed alert to produce two able, and important saves. Sears showed enthusiasm and much needed pace, and of course Nolan provided the goal in the 18th minute. Other than that, it was a painful 90 minutes of football to endure. Yes it resulted in 3 points, but such a lack of visible composure and competency is worrying, given that this team is bursting with talent and has a manager who at the very least gets his teams well drilled in doing the basics well.
We looked no better than the last time I saw us play for a full 90 minutes. I was expecting gritty, but not scrappy. I wanted 3 points, but not really like that. We offered nothing. Not a thing. Following the goal, which came after some decent signs that we might overwhelm Brighton with our attacking intent, we never looked like threatening them again. I'll take the clean sheet. I'll take the away win, but I reserve the right to moan about a performance that was largely shambolic and without any semblance of tactics, simply because it doesn't bode well for the future. I have a nasty worry that we'll forget how to play attractive stuff, or even just okay stuff.
