what a fantastic and definitely unexpected start. half time cruising 2-0..i was tempted to come on and say...it will get tougher than this. i'd have happily taken a draw before the game. great grit to dig for the win.
Jack Dearden quite rightly seemed to be saying..just hang on to the ball for 5 mins when we were under the cosh.
in the end the stats show us with 59% possession. and a corner count of 5 to 2 in our favour !.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37030453so much more confident with MH in goal. Amos's one outing being a disaster in the cup.
yes the Wheater-less defence surrendered more shots that night...9 on target faced..but 4 let in 5 saved.
in both away games Howard only let 1 in, and made 3 or 4 saves. so that's at least 3 or 4 more saves per goal conceded
in terms of saves ratio. so for the 4 conceded at blackpool Amos , if he saved them at the rate MH does would make 10 or 12 saves.
early days for these saves stats..they make more sense in the long run when you played a variety of good and bad teams,
home and away and behind good and not so good defences. my point is Amos is just continuing his own trends from last season
and those were tracked over a longer period !
so many of those mental barriers being smashed to pieces. coming from behind to beat Wimbledon.
getting away wins. back to back wins. best start for 15 years. shed the losing habit would have been a good start..i hesitate to say
we've got a winning habit now..it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. players feel more confident.
you even attract new players easier. they want to be on board. players thinking of leaving suddenly think...i wouldn't mind
a promotion push..maybe even a title winning medal....stop that !!.. i'm getting way ahead of myself but at least the prospect of that being dangled is more appealing than blackpool-style successive relegations.
what a refreshing change to see a manager use his subs well. use the buggers early !!. 60 mins - get one on at least and he does.
and get the next on at 70 mins. so obvious, and best practice used by nearly all the top managers.. but our last 2 or 3 managers have struggled to do this.
NL possibly being the worst of all..routinely waiting til 82 mins. what confidence that must have inspired in his bench , and what lack of pressure for the starters. not subbing under-performing big names like Mavies. it's not just the timings it's making fair choices...be it based on fitness, or lack of involvement, or protecting those on yellows..PP seems to be getting those calls right. he's also using all 3 subs all the time..not wasting one.
don't forget...this was NOT considered an easy start to our fixture list. it looked tough. i fully expected us to be bottom 6 after ,say, 6 games.
one final point..just 5 lge wins last season..4 for NL......WE'RE ON 3 ALREADY !!!!!!