I took a workmate and he thought it was dire and a waste of a fiver. We gave the ball away far too often and the build up was far too slow and laboured. It's OK building from the back if you have players that are comfortable on the ball that don't panic but you can't trust our back five not to **** up, especially the goalkeeper, Nyatanga and Smith. We were extremely lucky to win last night and on another day could have lost 4-1 so lets not get carried away just because we won.
I enjoyed last night, i can only remember 3-4 times we had to lump it up to Waring. Played on the floor with a quick tempo. Just need start finishing our chances
And on another day could have won 4-0. We messed about with it at the back in the first half once or twice, but second half we didn't do that once and kept possession really well, with intricate passing, and looking to create chances.
We both know stats don't tell the whole story. There's a marked improvement in our play the last three games (like someone said above, Crewe was awful, especially first half). Players are showing for the ball and not running away from the player on the wing. The intensity and desire is greater, and the full backs are being encouraged to get forward. We're less reliant on our centre halves being midfield playmakers, and we played less long balls forward. Granted, there was a five minute spell first half where I felt we'd turned in to Keith Hill's Barnsley reincarnated, but other than that I thought we played extremely well. Credit to Wilson for signing players such as Scowen and O'Sullivan, although let's counter that with acknowledging that Lita got packed off yesterday, and Hemmings has been nowhere to be seen since Johnson came in. The substitutions worried me last night. We didn't just make two subs, we changed four positions in the process and lost the battle in midfield, inviting pressure on ourselves when we were clearly dominating. We just needed a freshen up legs wise, not wholesale changes. Two central midfielders moved out wide, and two subs brought in to centrL midfield. That was too much chaos and we lost our flow. Hope Johnson learns from that.
Dont make same mistake as me it's a long and lonely furrow that of defending a previous manager's record on here.......