Duncan Barkes

If it's one-on-one, take him on.

Ali did, and on a couple of occasions, he got decent crosses in.

But he still looked as though he was perfectly happy not to be given the ball unless it was in a lot of room, sufficient room for him to turn, not get clattered and take one man on.

That's what he wanted.

And you don't get that very often in the championship.

So there were plenty of times when he wasn't quite up to the pace.

Segacic huffed and puffed but didn't actually manage to produce anything and Brown got into a couple of decent situations didn't he he had a couple of half chances or quarter chances perhaps good on him for doing that but we need them to go in we need them to hit the back of the net

Everybody was shooting from 28 yards along the deck.

Well, no, there was the one that went in almost off the bar.

Beautifully taken goal, it has to be said.

But a lot of their shooting was speculative and the ball took a tiny deflection.

There's nothing you can do if you're a defender or a keeper if the ball takes a slight deflection.

It's just, you know, rock, paper, scissors.

or the equivalent of rock, paper, scissors.

It's just a matter of luck.

It's the roll of the dice, isn't it?

It's what the Americans call a crapshoot.

But they were, I'm not going to milk that metaphor and say that their shots were crap, because they weren't.

They were along the deck, they were fast, they fizzed.

And we had plenty of... Now, I've just remembered.