A lot was made of Duff's substitutions against Port Vale, and whether such wholesale changes when defending a lead were necessary. Yesterday, he got his changes spot on. Norwood and Benson were instrumental in the 2nd goal, and Cadden played a phenomenal ball to Norwood for the 3rd. It was a crucial point in the game, we needed to do something to compensate for the loss of Kitching. Benson's new found work ethic, and Norwood's general nuisance was exactly what we needed. As has been said elsewhere, it was a strange game. You could argue that 3-0 flattered us a little, but for once, the opposition was more wasteful in front of goal than we were. Their number 18 scuffed an unbelievable chance just before the break, which might have made the team talks a little different had he hit it a bit more cleanly. Credit to Mads Andersen too. Their 2nd disallowed goal wouldn't have been so, had he not marshalled his defence to push out just before the ball came back into the box. 2-1 there could have set up a tense finale, however as it was, we exploited the space being created by Cambridge being a bit more gung-ho, and got the clincher. Man of the match for me was Devante Cole. He led the line incredibly well, and turned on the flair at the correct moments. It's the sort of performance that makes me think he could be a 15+ goal striker at this level. He needs to do that more consistently. Cambridge were much better than the scoreline would suggest. I was pleasantly surprised that Ironside didn't start, as he's a nuisance, and very good at occupying opposition defenders, something Smith tried to do. Still some work to do, but it's definitely coming together. Edwards looks a decent player too.
A game I particularly wanted to go to as I lived in Cambridge from 1979 to 1982. Still got friends down there.
It’s easy saying he got his subs wrong, but no manager brings players onto the pitch to do a worse job than they players he took off. I think the players he fetched on against Port Vale should look at themselves. And the players he brought on against Cambridge and give themselves a pat on the back.
Benson made a massive difference. After the abuse I gave him last season I can’t believe how good he looks this season. He ran show yesterday after coming on, looked a class above.
Agree with this. People only criticised the subs in hindsight. They made sense at the time. Kane just coming back from injury, the other lads had run their blood to water, and we had another game on Saturday. The impact of the subs yesterday was crazy. Benson looked like prime Gazza at times, Norwood goal and assist, Cadden assist, all with 10 men. This doesn’t make Duff a genius, nor does Tuesday make him inept.
Personally I didn't think he got them wrong either. As you say, they made perfect sense at the time, and it's up to the likes of Norwood to prove him right, so to speak, when he's brought on. If I was to nitpick anything from last Tuesday, it'd be that I'd have brought Tedic on instead of Norwood, who's main asset is to get the opponents back up. He couldn't do that Tuesday because he was on a booking before he'd even got onto the field.
