You get some, you lose some; Fair enough, but Saturday's penalty decision was all that much harder to take because the ref could and should have overruled the linesman's decision. Si r Alex quickly pointed to the game against Sunderland when the ref did overrule the linesman for what would have been a controversial penalty. I thought the ref was sure Rio got the ball and hence should not have bowed to the pressure of his assistant.
That said, we were bound to get punished for failing to be clinical infront of goal sometime. Winning 1-0 i great and says a lot about your defensive solidity but its never a safe lead. We missed the load of chances against Benfica and paid the price and did the same against Newcastle. After finding or feet at the back, I think its time we found that clinical touch infront of goal that we had at the start of the season.
It wasn't for a lack of trying though as Newcastle did defend resolutely when they could and rode their luck when they were dead cut through but that was after they drew level. Earlier in the season, we used to kill off games in the first half so that no sort of comeback was possible for our opponents. The number of chances that we put to waste before Ba scored the penalty came back to haunt us.
It was great that Hernandez got his first OT goal of the season but it speaks volumes that he got it in such lucky circumstances. Ultimately we've been lucky that this slip was not punished by City yesterday and we only remain 5 points behind. It will hurt that we could have been just three behind today.
The challenge remains for us to keep in touch for as long as possible.Labels: REVIEWS
