That was absolutely horrible. We let them back into that in a big, big way. It was never quite last chance saloon but I was convinced they were going to score. The game just had that feel about it. Massive credit to Fleetwood - that was basically the perfect 'man sent off within 10 mins away from home' performance. They maybe deserved a point by the end.
I'm thrilled we're looking so good from set pieces. We never have before in my memory, and it adds such a weapon to our attack. That said, without MacGuane I think our threat from open play is hugely diminished. We had maybe a couple of good chances from well-worked build-up play today (Henry's shot against the bar in particular), which is pretty poor, especially against a team with 10 men for 90% of the game, regardless of how well they're defending. Without MM, we don't have anyone who can consistently beat a man and cause overloads and drag teams out of position. Brannagan might be that player, but he's still not 100% fit yet for me. Set pieces are obviously great, but I think they're getting us out of jail a bit, and against better sides we might get found out.
I said this on the Transfer thread, but I'm going to repeat it - I've lost all faith in Dan Agyei. I don't think he has any future here. He seems to be always playing with the handbrake on, and I just don't understand it. He never seems to sprint flat out, or really rut for a 50:50, or bust his a**e getting back to over defensive cover. He just sort of drifts through games. He provides moments of magic, like Shrewsbury and like Rochdale, but it isn't enough for me. If he could play like he did for the first 20 mins on Tuesday regularly, he'd be such a valuable player. But he never has, and he's had enough chances now.
That all said, on paper it's a good result. Three points off the playoffs now and results elsewhere uniformly perfect for us. As someone said above, you need to be able to win despite playing badly to get out of this league, and we've shown some mettle in the past week to get those two wins. I think I've finally calmed down enough from that final 15 to enjoy a whisky and a relaxing Saturday evening!
