Red card mentality

[Blackpool Shrimp]

Its strange how red cards change matches in different ways ....

Saturday for example ...

Bury lost with ten men
Accrington drew with ten men
Morecambe won with ten men

Last season we were away at Hartlepool they went down to ten men then beat us
Few years ago we went down to ten men against Crewe and won

Is there any reason why playing against ten men proves to be difficult time and time again

[underbank]

I don't think that 10 men is a particular problem for short periods. You've never got all the players fully engaged all the time during a game anyway. Being a man down just means that the others have to cover for each other a little more, they do this anyway during a game when other players find themselves out of position or minor injuries, so it's the same logic. Problem is that the remaining players have to work harder, be on the ball more of the time, and have to run around more, as well as having to be more alert as there's less scope for their own errors being covered by someone else.

So, for a short time towards the end of the game, like in Ryan's case, the other 10 can cope, but if someone gets sent off in the early stages of a game, the other player's will get tired quicker, more likely to make mistakes, etc. Another aspect is that the opposition may become over-confident and make mistakes, thus leaving themselves open.

I think it's when you're down to 9 that you've not really got much of a chance!

[Seasider9601]

Best example I can think of is when we were down to 10 men v Crewe in March 2010 after Paz had been sent off.

Baz saved the resultant penatly.

We were 1-3 down at the time and the rest, as they say, is history.

[Glasgow_shrimp]

Baz saved the resultant penatly.

actually the resultant free kick hit off an arm in the wall and a penalty was given!

[SolentShrimp]

How come Hearts can beat Cowdenbeath 10-0 just over a week ago, and a week later Rangers couldn't even get off the mark against Cowdenbeath?

[Glasgow_shrimp]

How come Hearts can beat Cowdenbeath 10-0 just over a week ago, and a week later Rangers couldn't even get off the mark against Cowdenbeath?

There are many answers to this but I'll go with...

Cowdenbeath upped their game because they were playing a big team!