Smith – 7 – flapped at a number of crosses, but pulled off a smart save at 1-1 to keep hopes alive.
Chambers – 4 – I have to take pity on Chambers who is woefully out of his depth and, frankly, just not good enough. One game is a blip, three games is bad form, six games is a simple lack of ability.
Morgan – 5 – somewhat clumsy and behind the game at times – definitely not one of his strongest displays. He was busy planting his backside in Akinbyi’s path when Burnley broke free to tee up the penalty incident, and it backfired.
Wilson – 6 – a reasonably steady performance; stepped in to cover for Heath’s defensive hesitance on a number of occasions.
Heath – 6 – an encouraging performance; capable and cautiously comfortable in possession, but probably not quite up to scratch in his bread and butter defending. He didn’t let anybody down, but he has a way to go.
Moussi – 6 – fell off the radar for reasonably long periods. He popped up occasionally to wriggle away from trouble or spray a pass, but he didn’t have much impact at all this afternoon.
Perch – 7 – not the kind of player that can rescue a sinking ship, often quite the opposite in fact, but he performed his tackling back role excellently all game and covered for the ailing Chambers several times in the second half.
Cohen – 8.5 – Man of the Match – relentless, determined and creative without ever finding the support his performance deserved. He is thriving in the current system.
Martin – 6 – started very brightly with some exceptional ball control and several fiery inward runs. But when the chips trickled down his performance naturally followed; something I fear we may become accustomed to.
Earnshaw – 7 – he’s doing the business in front of goal and he’s causing problems. It’s a credit to him, because I honestly don’t believe he is best suited to the role he is playing.
Tyson – 6 – bursts of pace that threatened to cause problems without really doing so. Spurned a one-on-one opportunity, as he always does.
