What's impressive about England's performance in The Ashes so far is the way they

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Originally Posted by SWv2

I was always a staunch conscientious objector to the nonsense of how we used to dominate but lose games, arguing about the futility of possession stats when failing to ultimately capitalise and make it count.

It was often used after valiant European defeat when the opposing team knew they had probably done enough in the first leg and didn’t need to force the issue.

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It always seemed to me to be based on the misapprehension that football is a game like rugby where possession is the be-all and end-all. It blatantly isn't. Counter-attacking is a time-honoured and legitimate tactic and - because football only has one means of scoring - the idea that you can almost attritionally grind opposition teams down by virtue of possession alone is fundamentally flawed.

Indeed. If league position was assessed by any other measure than the end result, City would be looking cautiously over their shoulder at us.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Nothing stupid about it. It would normally be a commanding position. However. in part because they've scored so quickly and in part because they collapsed so quickly, they haven't actually taken that much time out of the game in scoring 400. That means that, if Australia score equally fast (as they are), they could take a lead by the end of day three that would put England under severe pressure with two days left in the game. And, given England's propensity for collapse, that puts them under threat.

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Lets not forget that England made 551 in Adelaide in the 06/07 series and still managed to lose

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Lets not forget that England made 551 in Adelaide in the 06/07 series and still managed to lose

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Yeah. That was special even by our standards. :-(

vaughan is correct...missed an opportunity to take the win away from Australia.

Now England will have to navigate a dangerous 2nd Innings...heard heavy rain is forecast for days 4 and 5 so might get saved.

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Originally Posted by Tony C

vaughan is correct...missed an opportunity to take the win away from Australia.

Now England will have to navigate a dangerous 2nd Innings...heard heavy rain is forecast for days 4 and 5 so might get saved.

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And then we'll only lose 4-0 :cloud9: :moralvictory: