I'm not getting carried away. I'm happy we won without a shadow of a doubt, I understand you can only beat what's put in front of you- but it was Sheffield United's Reserves. So forgive me if I'm still very doubtful of Kit. However, credit to Kit- he did get it right tonight in pretty much all areas. The selection was generally good, we were pretty consistently pressing the Sheff. Utd team and on any other day we'd have had 6 or 7 with the number of chances we created- especially second half.
Right then, down to business and looking ahead. Stoke, Mark Hughes is coming back for his usual warm reception down at the Cottage. It'll definitely be an interesting game, provided we take it seriously we're always in with a shot- especially if Stoke rest players as they did tonight. Them resting players will also hopefully mean Steve Sidwell coming back, so overall it could have been a better draw- but the dream for Carlisle away isn't dead yet.
The goals were all good in one way or another tonight. As I'll talk about in a lot more depth later on the first McCormack goal was exactly what he needed. It was a definite penalty, the Sheff. Utd player was doing his best to rip the shirt off McCormack's back for it and it was a good finish. The second was the first goal of the season for us that's come from a really good move- all of the others have either been top-draw goals or come from someone switching off/making a mistake and on that front it was a massive plus for us, and it was a great finish by McCormack. The third one was a bit iffy, my first impression was Dembele was offside and it had just hit him- but looking at a Vine for it he did actually mean it and was on. Hey, a goals a goal- and Dembele definitely needed one with how he played tonight.
It's definitely safe to say it wasn't the busiest Lonergan's ever had. I think, but I'm not 100% certain on this that he did in fact have to make a save at some point. But Clean Sheets, as I'll get onto later like goals breed confidence however they come so it's all good on that front.
I don't like dwelling on negatives, and I wouldn't even really call this a big negative- but it's still something that needs to be said. Tim Ream is not the answer when it comes to our Centre-Back problem. He was fine tonight, he didn't do anything "wrong" but you can definitely see why he was playing Left-Back at Bolton last season. He simply isn't good enough in the air, and when we come up against powerful Championship strikers he'll be exposed. I saw the link with Angella today, which I'd be all for- as said in my hastily edited all over the place Preview yesterday we're desperate for Centre-Backs, so a Loan as rumoured for Angella may stop us massively overpaying for someone. As already said though, this wasn't a massive test for the Defence today- but on the whole they dealt with everything that came their way and that's that.
I saw the MOTM voting options. Anyone who doesn't vote for Tunnicliffe is simply wrong after his performance tonight. He was just sublime, I'll direct you to something I said after the Norwich game at the back end of last season on Tunnicliffe...
"I come down on the side of he is valuable to us- his work rate and team ethic is needed in any team and I think people will only realise how key he is to the balance of the team if he gets injured."
We're simply a better team when Tunnicliffe is playing, he knows his role and he plays it perfectly- in turn allowing the players around him to play their games and play them well. He was just great tonight. On the flip side, Christensen. I honestly don't know what's happened to Christensen since the turn of the year. I don't know whether his confidence got knocked, because even before the Derby game that put him out for the season he wasn't really good enough. I could attribute that to him not being fully-fit, but since this season's started he's got no excuses- and provided O'Hara isn't still ill for Saturday given how Tunnicliffe performed it's a no-brainer with the Central-Midfield selection.
Pringle and Kacaniklic were quite iffy, you can see that there is the ability there with both of them- they both just looked really unsure of themselves. But, like I say I don't really want to dwell on the negatives because this type of win for us has been a real rarity in recent years.
Onto my second "Hey, I was right" point of the evening. Ross McCormack. I've said in literally every single on of these Previews/Reviews with I think the exception of the Cardiff Preview that McCormack just needed to get a goal to spark him into life and get going regardless of how it came. What do you know? As soon as he put that penalty in he instantly went up a gear, he was chasing everything and just looked infinitely better- capped off with the second goal.
I was ready to write Dembele's performance off as "one of those games" before he got the goal. It just wouldn't go in for him for the majority of the game. He was doing everything right, he was making all of the right runs- he was creating chances for himself (and others) it just simply wouldn't go in for him through a combination of bad luck. bad finishing and one save almost identical to the one that stopped a goal from him on Saturday. It's safe to say Dembele isn't clinical, but he was still a massive handful for the Sheff. Utd defenders summed up perfectly late on when he got in behind and forced the Sheff. Utd defender into getting a Red Card.
Speaking of Red Cards, The first of which came from a horrific tackle on Tom Cairney who was great when he came on. This goes back to my praise for Kit today in-terms of "getting it right" he didn't "have" to make the Cairney switch, especially coming off the heels of a goal but he did and it helped us force through our advantage. Bodurov didn't have much time, but everything he did was fine- he had a few problems up against their massive Striker- but he can't grow so it's a non-issue.
I'm not going to say the Woodrow equaliser and this game have been a "turning point" for us, at least not yet. The real test will be Rotherham on Saturday, but hopefully this game will have given confidence to the team- and in the case of McCormack in particular really woken him up. But as I said in my Huddersfield Review, I just want us to win games- so on that front I'm happy and when it comes to the Cup it's roll on Stoke.
Thanks for reading as always, we're nearly at the International Break now. The Rotherham Preview will be up at Friday as usual and then of course the Review will be up at 8 O'Clock Saturday so stay tuned for those. Thanks again for reading, winning just puts you in a better mood doesn't it?
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