An absolutely vital victory for Rovers, particularly in the context of other results, which nearly all went for us. However, the euphoria of the winner should not gloss over the fact this was another poor display for long, long periods.I thought the substitutions won us the game, together with the backing of the SWA who were superb in the second half, and visibly lifted the players.
In the first twenty minutes I thought we were the better side, but our football was similar to a lot of recent games, pedestrian and lacking real creativity. We created one decent chance for Cook and a couple of half chances, but in general I thought our play lacked width, the wing backs again not getting forward as they should have done, and creativity in the absence of a number ten behind the strikers.
After we failed to score an early goal confidence dipped, and for the last twenty minutes of the first half and first twenty of the second, we lost our way. Barrow, while looking a poor outfit generally, were on top in this period and we rode our luck on one or two occasions towards the end of the first half, not least with the disallowed goal.
I raised an eyebrow at the substitutions, but they did have a positive impact. Dunn in particular had his best game since signing permanently and created several openings from the position behind the front two. Pongo did not do anything spectacular but was neat and tidy and linked the play well, although I hope the substitution of Cook - who was starved of service all game - does not suggest the rift with the manager is ongoing. After the changes we started to get better possession higher up the pitch, Buxton came into the game more on the right hand side, and it was good bit of perseverance from Dunn and Norwood which led to the goal.
Individually, I thought McNulty was solid at the back and McEveley continued his improvement. Both Cook and Norwood were below par, largely due to the poor service they received for most of the game. Dunn was bright and inventive when he came on and Buxton was composed on the ball as always, albeit far too deep in the first half. However, I thought the man of the match was Oliver Norburn had who several good efforts from distance and was back to the form of the first few games of the season.
I don't think we are out woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but the league table makes better reading tonight.