My thoughts on last night, and looking ahead..

Haven't had a chance up to now, to share my opinions, so I apologise if I go over any old ground.
I thought we were off our game for large chunks yesterday. Maybe the frenetic game at Peterbro took a lot out of the players.
I was surprised to see Perkins at LB, but I guess Keith didn't fancy disrupting the central partnership by moving McNulty over. And IMO, I felt Shirl did well there for the most part. In fact, he kept Zaha quiet for the first quarter, stuck to his task, leading to the Palace kid growing frustrated. But fair play to the boy, he soon worked out how to beat Shirl, and once or twice got away down the flank, and Shirley's only answer was to foul him. But all in all, I'd say he performed as well as JayMac often does.. And lets remember, the winger he had to contend with was too hot to handle for a Man Utd XI last week.
I wont go into details on the match. You saw it, heard it, read about it. Not much I can add, other than my own thoughts on our display.
I thought we were decent value for our lead, and then Palace were deservedly level at half-time. The lapse at the back which cost us, also seemed to knock our confidence a little. That coupled with a poor midfield showing from our central duo, had me telling my mate that I'd take a point during the break. He agreed. And we both thought Shirley would be better off in the centre. Not because he was poor at LB, more in the hope of him winning the battle in the midfield. And thankfully, Keith saw it too. Tbh though, we would have subbed Jacob, who wasn't his usual self. But, he does always offer that threat, as he showed after 77 minutes..
We were much better after the break, as were the crowd who I felt were pathetic first half.
Wiseman looked a different player on that side, and Perkins did what he does best. We started on the front foot and once the unimpressive Ranger was replaced by Haynes, the goal was inevitable. Palace sat too deep, and Freedman made two bizarre subs that killed them as an attacking force. Limited them to only the occasional Ambrose set-piece. Davies and Vaz Te were immense, and both were cynically hauled down bursting thru their defence. How McCarthy wasn't dismissed I'll never know. He went thru the back and got none of the ball. And then Jacob impressed the many managers watching him - Pulis, Pearson, Cotterill etc - by taking a silly quick free kick..
But he did have a hand in the winner!
I thought Bobby was immense, and composed under pressure. As was McNulty who looks more and more a better version of Shackell.
Jimbo was his usual quality self. Made 2 or 3 great covering tackles, and looks a lot trickier than last year. Haynes was impressive, and I'd like to see him start with Craig setdi against his old club.
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My final point is about the future. My Dale fan friend Carl, tells me they always had awful ends to their campaigns.. but with the injuries we had early doors, most of our lads should still be quite fresh, which should see us..... stay up!

 

Lot been made about them beating the united team last week but they've only scored two league goals in a while and only won 1 league game in 7.