DPL EFL Cup vs Arsenal

Got home at half past two and now at work trying to keep my eyes open, but it was worth it !!.
After twenty minutes i thought we were going to get hammered.
Sanchez was pulling all the strings - what a fantastic player he is.
However, we then put together a couple of nice passing passages of play and it seemed to settle us down a bit.
Our chances were few and far between and may almost scored just before half time.
As ridiculous as this may sound, we matched Arsenal in the second half, our play was really good and some of the passing was very composed and imaginative.
Arsenal were still top quality but their defenders made a couple of bad decisions latish on and May and Mandeville both both clear but were not fast enough to get away from unbelievably quick defenders and the chances were gone.
Blair hit the bar with a great header from a corner.
Overall this was a performance for us to be proud of and a few Arsenal fans that i spoke to afterwards were very complemantery about us.
Although we lost, it was a good night for us really.
The players all worked their socks off and i just hope there isn't a carry over into the Plymouth game with tiredness being an issue.

Nice 1 hound.
We got back to keepmoat at 4.25am.
We played so well to a man.
As you say ...can we carry that on to Plymouth

Lawlor, who allegedly cant make a save, was superb.

Yep and not only on the floor.
We are in a good position in that department with 2 good keepers

My internet has been down, but my report would have been almost identical to Hound's. It looked worrying for the first 15 minutes; we seemed mesmerised, but nevertheless got the crucial tackles in to keep them out, but then we started to be positive and grew in confidence.

As soon as I saw Marquis and Mandeville were missing form the starting 11, I assumed he'd bring them both on at half time or early in the second half and they both had that little extra bit of confidence which could have brought us a goal. I think he might have brought them both on at the same time rather than leaving Marquis till 15 minutes from the end. They looked good in that final period. However, the entire team gave 100% and the passing in the second half was excellent.

Lawlor was top class.

As Hound says it was pace, balance and movement that marked the difference between the teams and what Arsenal produced was a pleasure to watch, vaguely reminding me of what we could sometimes do under SOD.

This was a real tonic to their morale, putting in a real quality display against such a skilful force and even though we needed a fair ration of luck, it was by no means a 100% siege once we got through those first 15 minutes.

The Arsenal set-up was impressive, pre-match, half time and away supporters made to feel welcome.

The stewards were very tolerant - too tolerant really of people who would not sit down and not even take their seats, so we had to stand for 90 minutes in order to see. Amazingly too, quite a lot of them were more interested in making gestures and attempting to taunt the home support rather than watching the match right at the time when we were at our best and might have got a goal.

It was a great night and how we played was far better than I expected. Wenger was impressed and thinks we will retain our status, so all is well with the World once again.

Excellent match reviews. We did show a bit too much respect in the first half an hour but with Sanchez on form and all the Arsenal defenders being so fast it was always going to be a tall order to score goals. I enjoyed the match but I did not enjoy the charmless antics of the idiots who got on the field nor the flares merchants. When everyone is searched and patted down you have to wonder how they got them in. We were also lucky - our bus got back at 02.30!

Apologies to Liam Mandeville.
I thought it was him who went through late on but having watched the highlights it was Whiteman who dilly dallied.

That surely must put some pride back in the players minds. Let's hope we carry it on for the rest of the season. Hold your heads high boys, you deserve it

Just 1 little self indulgent note.
Did the boo boys see how good mason looked when he moved to centre midfield
Comment 25 b (he also played really well AGAIN)

Here are the results of the Arsenal predictions. Azza gets praise for faith and optimism going for a 1-0 win, but much as we would have loved him to be right, he wasn’t. He and the 1-1s were nearest to the actual score, but the system does not work in their favour. Similarly King Chomprr was nearest with the crowd, but outside the range of points-scoring. Many got the result right which was perhaps the soft option and those of us who were gloomy enough to assume we would not score at all get 3 points for “0”.

Arsenal 0-1 Loss Att: 44064
..........Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo…… 0..... 3..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 6.... 28…..... 34
PDXMickey. 0..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 3.... 20....... 23
Yorks Lad.. 0..... 3..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 6..... 9......... 15
BVZ……….… 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 24....... 24
Crazy………. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 26....... 26
Uthred…... 0..... 3..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 6.…. 36........ 42
Mooligan…. 0..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 3.... 30....... 33
K Chomprr. 0..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 3.... 13....... 16
Small Azza, 0..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 3.... 16....... 19
Aussie Lad. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 5........ 5
Azza….…... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0..... 13...... 13
Chltnham.. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 0........ 0
Nookie.….. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 3........ 3
Selby………. 0..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 3..... 14...... 17
............ 0.... 9...... 0..... 24..... 0...... 33.... 237...... 270