Quote Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman View Post
That was great entertainment. A brilliant contest, really exciting stuff.

There was so much I'd forgotten about that game - the fact that both of City's goals should have been ruled out for offside, Hudson's horrible own goal, the superb efforts from Bothroyd and Whittingham that both crashed against the bar, Marshall almost gifting the game to Leicester in the dying moments of normal time, his brilliant save from Howard in extra time, the fact it was Waghorn who missed the final penalty, not Kermogant, etc.

Some of the football City played in that game, particularly during the first half, was just sensational. Has a City team ever looked as good as that in an attacking sense during the decade that has passed since?

The midfield and attacking line-up that day was:

Whittingham, McPhail, Ledley and Burke across the midfield; Bothroyd and Chopra up front.

The top scorers that season (including the play-off games) were Whittingham (22), Chopra (18), Bothroyd (11) and Burke (9).

The obvious problem was a lack of strength in depth. McCormack was a decent option and Rae certainly did a job, but the squad was very light apart from them and the defence wasn't especially reliable.
That's an interesting observation. That midfield wouldn't last 5 minutes in the Championship nowadays, very lightweight but excellent technically. Jones usually went with one battler in the middle, like Rae, Olofinjana etc.

In terms of personnel, I thought our defence was regularly one of the better ones in the division. That midfield 4 was never going to offer much assistance in a defensive way. Given Jones was a centre back in his playing days I'm surprised we did look capable of conceding as many as we did. To my surprise, Russell Slade's only full season in charge saw us with a better defensive record than any season under Jones. I know what side I'd rather watch, but its talent was offset by that fragility.