A fantastic performance from Rovers. The first half was probably the best forty five minutes of football I have seen this season, two very good sides with very little to separate them. However, as so often this season we took control of the game after half time, inspired to a great extent by a virtuoso performance from Ben Pringle, and thoroughly deserved to win the game.
I thought pretty much everybody played well and the higher standard of opposition seemed to lift our individual performances. A lot of the unsung players had really good matches: Morris was excellent, protecting the ball and knitting the play very well, and Liam Ridehalgh probably had his best game of the season, and was superb defensively. Losing Perkins was - and is - a major blow, but Harris was an able deputy, and if anything we seemed a bit more secure in midfield after he came on because of his tackling. In the early stages I thought MK were able to get in on our back four a bit too easily. Ellis had a few shaky moments early on, but was manhandled by Aneke all game and got nothing out of the referee. However, he did settle and defensively we were generally excellent again, with Manny superb. I thought Nors was also outstanding with his skill, movement and workrate, never allowing their centre halves to settle. However, I thought Ben Pringle was man of the match. He was technically excellent, always available for the ball and produced an absolutely delicious cross for the winning goal, with a classic bit of wing play.
As has been commented above, I was disappointed we conceded the equaliser so soon after scoring and there was a wayward header from Ellis in the build up, although it seemed to me that both he and Pringle were fouled. However, we again showed fantastic character to get a grip of the game in the first fifteen minutes of the second half and the victory was fully deserved. There was great support from the SWA once again, both in terms of numbers and noise, and we showed MK what a proper club looks life.
We are now only two points below the automatic places, so on to FGR on Friday.