As I hit send, they pull one back. We have been lucky defensively this match. Hopefully we can hold on, play off positions are opening up.
A glance and I see all our rivals are losing or drawing. This wil be an important 3 pts if we can hold on. New blood, fresh legs on.
I agree with the subs. We're having trouble keeping the ball up front because Norwood and Parrott have run out of gas.
Stout defense, however few chances we had. A good win, and up we go. I guess playing 2 games a week with the i injuries we have had, players coming back, it was not going to be a picnic in the park. But our midfield didnt get hold of the ball, and support as much as recent games. Rovers will be worthy of play-offs, they will be disappointed, neat flowng football, and MOM is Bostock - our players couldn't touch him.
We shouldn’t get too excited. We really rode our luck at times in our own six yard box. This is a poor division, we were just a lot less poor today.
Wilson has been the player we missed most, we're totally different defensively with him back. Even Nsiala seems to be making better decisions, I thought he was going to give penalties away in the last couple of games but he didn't take the choice I thought he would in certain dangerous situations.
In Nsiala I see the same attitude that I haven’t seen since McAuley - “I am doing everything I can to keep that ball out of the net.” I think we just have much better shape, which means he is not chasing back toward his goal to stop a striker getting a one to one every fifteen minutes. Those situations were nearly always when he got into trouble.
This win highlights to me how weak our squad has been and in particular how important Norwood is for us. Our form last season curtailed when he got injured. If we are to get and stay in the top 6 he needs to stay fit. I agree Wilson also brings a calmness to the back 4 which we don't have, although I do feel for Woolfenden and McGuinnes who I think will be good players but you can't have a CB pairing with that little experience and expect to do well, added to having an inexperienced midfield ahead. I like Wilson but its crazy a limited player like him we should be relying on. It was clear in which ever transfer window (we could probably go back to the summer of 2019) that we have needed a top striker and CB in this division to really compete. Lambert has done alot wrong in the past few seasons, some questionable tactics but mostly questionable statements where he seams to say we will 100% play a certain way, then a month down the line he does a 180 and changes his mind. However he inherited an awful team which had been in decline for several seasons, lost its 3 players of any value, had an awful transfer window where mid quality league 1 players were brought in and not really been able to strengthen much since. Add to that having an injury prone squad during a global pandemic and the fact most relegated teams struggle this was not going to be a walk in the park. Lambert most certainly isn't blameless and hasn't helped himself but to deal with the injuries we've had to an already overrated squad its not overly surprising that our form has started to pick up when some of these players start to return.