Just got back and... WHAT A WIN
Much needed and well deserved!
I think the performance was almost as important as the result today. We seemed to have lost our way in recent weeks and looked a bit complacent in the last few fixtures, almost as if our place in the playoffs was cemented already. We needed to get back to the same level of desire that we showed in the early stages of the season, pressing higher up the pitch, creating options for the man on the ball, and when needed, hoofing the ball into dangerous areas of the pitch where we had players ready and waiting to at least challenge for the ball.
From the start, I liked how we set ourselves out. With Dykes unavailable, and Austin and Gray out of form, it was an inspired decision by Mark to start without any obvious or natural striker on the pitch. Our actual strikers have struggled to hold up the ball in recent weeks and failed to bring others into the game in dangerous areas of the pitch, and so a change of approach was very much needed in my opinion. We've been crying out for more movement and options in the final third and I couldn't personally see a solution to that, but I thought todays line up was a masterstroke by Warburton. Willock and Chair took it in turns to operate furthest up the field, creating uncertainty amongst their defence, and often dragging them out of position. This allowed our attacking players to find more space on the ball and created more space for our midfield to operate in.
We seemed to be controlling the game up until the 40th minute, when a moment of naivety / stupidity from Sanderson changed the game and put us on the back foot. Even at his age he should've known better than that, because if he's going to react to challenges like that then that won't be the last time he leaves the field prematurely. He's lucky that we got the win in the end after what could've been such a costly moment of frustration.
Even after we went down to 10 men, we closed them down well, kept pressing and restricted their chances to speculative efforts. Being critical, their goal should've been prevented after we failed to clear the ball which could've averted such a nervy end to the game. But that's where the criticism starts and finishes today, and without the failed clearance we wouldn't have had that moment of euphoria when Amos slotted home right at the end.
Big performances from everyone today. The desire to play for the manager, for each other and for the fans was clear to see and it was summed up in the reaction and relief felt by all following the final whistle. The substitutions were also spot on, giving us some fresh legs to replace the tiring ones that had been running around thanklessly to cover the space left by the sending off. Ball seemed like a solid option at centre back, although much of their play was down the opposite flank with Bowler, and Amos & Thomas added energy and fresh legs to a tiring midfield and allowed us to continue to press until the very end.
Dunne, Hendrick and Field were outstanding today, dominating the centre of the park and winning a lot of their aerial challenges.
I also noticed a big difference in our desire to win the first and second balls today. We wanted to get to the ball first, and more often than not, we did.
A season can hinge on a result like that...