I thought we were superb and fully deserved to win in ninety minutes. It was a much more intense and focused performance than any of the previous games under Dawes, and Norris, Dennis and Taylor made a big difference.
There were lots of good individual displays. Leake linked up really well with Taylor down our left side. The former was given a tough time by their wide man but gave as good as he got and had a really good game defensively. Taylor continues to impress and I am sure he will start on Saturday. Morris and Hendry were both excellent, Lewis was actually effective defensively, and McAlear had a reasonable game as an auxiliary right back, which might have given Dawes food for thought. Norris led the line extremely well considering he must still be nowhere near full fitness. Dennis was stuck out on the right wing, which I still don't like. He had some nice touches, but there were periods of the game where he was not involved at all.
Barnsley caused us problems on occasions when they moved the ball quickly, and Murphy had to make two or three excellent saves to compensate for his howler for their goal. However, I thought we were the better team with and without the ball.
We have got some decent players this season, and if we perform like that in the weeks ahead we will be fine.