I agree with Vulm that city were at no point in that game. Let's be honest, they were shite. Their play lacked pace, purpose, flair, they had nothing. They looked a team stripped of belief. They scored two goals out of nothing in that game. We were completely dominant.
I don't agree with Vulm that it was a clear pen. If that's the case then every time a ball is pinged at speed against a player and it ricochets up and hits his arm, it's a pen. Watch and see how many times from now to the end of the season that happens, and see how many times a pen is given.
Seeing Kenny at the end made me emotional, you could see what it meant, I was made up, I still am. We're at Wembley, fantastic. There's no red who'll find negatives in that.
But I actually don't think from a football perspective that this was that good a performance. We grafted and we worked hard as fuck, but in my honest opinion some of our players are getting more credit than their performance warranted.
Downing, for example. I mean this lad is getting credit for having one of his best games in a red shirt last night. To me, that says more about how mediocre he's been than anything else.
He was good last night, you could say very good. But that's Downing's biggest problem. I said when he signed that a top class player plays well even when he's not in top form, but in top form tears teams apart. A good player goes missing when he hits a drop in form, and when he's on the top of his game, he plays well. There's a big difference in what that contributes to the team.
Downing ran last night, I think he even beat his man once, and he got a couple of good crosses in. But there were also times when he was 1v1 and he just refused to commit to attacking the fullback and plays it safe inside. It's so frustrating to watch. I want to see more from him. If last night was what Downing is capable of, we've overpaid by quite a bit. I want to see him raise his game to a higher level than that.
Dirk Kuyt played a blinder. He was my motm and I'm surprised he hasn't rivaled Bellamy in the opinions of a few more on here.I thought that was as close to a perfect game as he's had. Reminiscent of his very best form.
All in all it was a team win. We kept our shape and discipline well, and City pretty much had no answer to that.
When it comes down to it though, we'll need more in an attacking sense if we're going to have any chance to get into the top four this season. City presented us with chance after chance to really kill them dead here, and I don't mean the direct chances on goal, I mean the times when we were one pass or one decision or one moment of real intent from being clean through. We could and should have cut them to ribbons last night because they were piss poor. I think the euphoria of us getting to a cup final has sort of masked that.
