1st Half: Bo; Lynch, Leon, DD, Edge; Green, Ash, Woodhouse, Ellison; Barmby; Fagan.
Hearts brought a good following of around 1,000 (prob about 7,000 crowd) who were very vocal. Great following minus a few idiots who caused some fuss with the police and had a few scraps in town. They scored a well worked goal halfway through. No. 10 drilled across for the trialist (no. 9) to tap in. Hartley ran clear but wasn't found, a good Ellison run forced a corner that Leon headed wide from, Bo made a terrific save from 10 yard strike and Lynch fired wide following a great run, that was about it.
Fagan worked hard but very isolated. Lynch was superb getting forward, not a lot to do though. DD, Leon and Edgy were stubborn and solid, one terrible Delaney backpass aside. Green not often involved going foward, Woodhouse supported and passed really well in general. Ash was hit and miss, while Ellison was typical.
2nd Half: Sergio; Wiseman, MJ, DD (Byron), Daws; France, Ash (Wilkinson), Andrews, Elliott; Ellison (Benson), Fry
Lot of kids involved made the second half a complete waste of time. Hearts rarely threatened bar one header over and no. 7 chucking himself down in the box. Elliott put Fry away but he lacked pace and was tackled by a gorilla, er, Steve Pressley. Elliott also fired over and Andrews wasted a free kick from a good position. That's about it again.
Front two worked hard but were toothless. Benson was very like Donaldson in stature, maybe pacier, but clumsy. Worked hard though. Sergio was safe, teflon gloves swapped for some new shiny ones. Great distribution. Defence solid. MJ was poor coming out, too many square balls when space to move out into. He's nowhere near good enough. Big Leon has improved more in the last 6 months than Joseph in 3 years. Byron looked accomplished again. Dawson did OK. France was pathetic, unfortunately, maybe lacking fitness. Elliott excellent, a real class above the rest, but hardly any touches and no support. Andrews is a superb passer but really slow again. Wilkinson is another from the youth team, quite like Andrews, didn't do bad. I don't see anything in Fry, but PT seems to rate him.
In all, a fitness exercise, but no more. Bit of a waste of good opposition in my opinion. Not a great turn out and no atmosphere. Pretty lifeless game. I thought the back 5 in the first game are the first choice. For midfield and the rest, I haven't got a clue. I'd love to see Fagan and McPhee together, with Barmby behind. In fact, if I see PT at the open day tomorrow, I'm going to tell him so too!
Might get my shirt signed by Ellison and MJ tomorrow, reckon it'll do big business on ebay?
Rick