A fantastic effort from the players. We were dominated in possession almost from start to finish, as you would expect given our midfield injuries and the gulf in resources between the clubs, although we played some decent stuff in spells and were never embarrassed. However, defensively we were superb and the team spirit was fantastic once again.
In the first half I thought we looked very comfortable apart from the final few minutes, but the second period was a bit of a battering in all honesty. Coventry missed five or six good chances but I thought we deserved that slice of luck because of the spirit we showed in adversity.
I thought it was a game where everybody contributed individually, even if we did not produce sparkling football. The usual suspects - Manny, Potter, Davies - played well, but I was particularly encouraged by some of the other performances around the team. I thought Ray was really solid and had his best game in a Rovers shirt; Gilmour took a while to get into the game but was excellent in the second half, winning challenges and always looking to play forward; Caprice produced some great crosses from the right hand side; and Hepburn-Murphy looked lively when he came on. Strangely enough, CBT was the only player I thought had an up and down game - a couple of good runs early on but then giving the ball away a fair bit - but he showed what a talent he is with the winner.
However, my man of the match was Stefan Payne. He is clearly growing in confidence and won a lot of balls in the air today and put in a massive shift for the team, even during periods of the game when he was really isolated. He played a part in the winning goal as well.
We should have several players available again on Friday, which gives us a great opportunity to put some daylight between ourselves and the bottom three.
