It’s rare that a loss leaves you so satisfied, but I thought we were ace. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but if we were much better than we were last night, we’d have a Premier League team.
My Chelsea supporting boss was on first thing this morning to tell me the best side lost - and he was really impressed with our play so we must have done something right...
If we can stop giving the ball away so cheaply and capitalise on our attacks more then we will take some beating.
I understand the vertical and quick football to catch defences out but at times it looks panicked. There was one instance last night that I remember with Woodrow on the half way line and 2 other strikers on either side and he punted a first time pass straight towards the corner flag. We get in some great positions but just need to take a bit more care at times.
We more than gave a good account of ourselves against a top PL team. Well played Reds, I'm really proud today of you all
I thought at all the key moments we panicked. A bit of composure and we'd be playing Sheffield Utd in the quarters. Threw it away for me.
If we weren't playing Chelsea I'd be more inclined to agree but we didn't have the luxury of time to decide what to do.
That's just it we did. Kane could have taken a touch. Brittain could have side footed it past the stricken Chelsea keeper.
Think it's psychological too. They probably felt they had less time due to the quality of opposition.
I think Brittain thought "Oh **** it's Chelsea I'm about to score. What do I do? Hit the target, hit the target. Oh **** I've missed, bollax!"
I think we need to appreciate that we were playing a team who , maybe with the exception of one, were all full internationals. On that basis I say we did exceptionally well and move on.
I actually wonder if its also induced because of the helter skelter non stop chasing we do in games. So when there is a chance to be composed and calm, they've just had a frenetic spell and are in that mindset. It's often difficult to shift thinking so radically from one extreme to another, I suspect some of that is the same when asking your body to do something physical too.
I think there's teams we can play it against, and teams we can't. That's why we seem to beat everyone below 10th in the league and lose to everyone above that.
I think if there had been fans in, we'd have won. A rabid Oakwell would have given the players just that bit extra they needed. As it is, we were wonderful, even if we did fall just short - I don't think we can play much better than that. Well done - I'm very proud of us.
