Roll on January

having watched the footage again, that’s very harsh on Boyce.
The Wednesday player puts the cross in & I wouldn’t expect Boyce to leave him to follow the ball in so he’ll have stayed with him. Watson then leaves his man to follow the ball meaning Boyce has 2 players to cover in that area. there’s then 2 seconds between the knockdown/Ramis & Watson coming out of position & May receiving the ball – I don’t think that there’s any way you can expect him to cover that. He may have shouted at Ramis & he may not have done (you can’t tell from that footage) but you can see him sprinting to try & cover but he slows/stops when the guy gets the ball coz at that point there’s nowt he can do
To me, there’s 4 Latics players involved in that bit of action (Barnett, Ramis, Watson & Boyce) & the only one I don’t think is at fault in any way is Boyce[/quote]
Maybe I am being harsh on him, but from that footage he deosn’t look like he’s either spotted Ramis’ error or like he’s busting a gut to get there (even though after the ball had gone over his head he’s facing his own goal and therefore can see what happening.)

Again, Ramis is at fault, but to me that whole sequence makes the defence look lacklustre.

Sorry to labour the point (which is most unlike me ;) ) but if you watch the footage, at 2.09 Boyce just disappears from shot & he’s about a yard outside the corner of the box having just turned round to see where the ball is.
At 2.12 he reappears in shot having probably covered a minimum of 8-10 yards
I know its hardly Usain Bolt-like but 3 seconds to find where the ball is, follow the path of the knock down, see a bloke unmarked, try to cover it & be where he is on the pitch isn’t ambling

That said, he gets turned inside far too easily by Drenthe in the first place, before Watson clears it and then again he allows the Sheff Wed player to overlap him in the next bit of footage far too easily.