I felt we were far too narrow in the first half. The system that worked at Solihull simply didn't function in the first 45mins. We had no width apart from the full backs - neither of which are wingers. The first half almost reminded me of some of GBs performances - on the back of a good away performance, at home, we struggled to break teams town. We have a great target man in Cook so why we weren't playing to his strengths by playing wide midfielders I don't know.
Credit to Micky for changing it so soon into the 2nd half. Tollitt looks a good player at this level and has genuine pace. We kept plugging away but as Ian says, despite all our corners and possession, their keeper didn't have too many saves to make. Ridehalgh who does have his faults put in a great ball powered home by Cook who once again looked exhausted at the end. Even before Stephenson came on, I felt the midfield was too negative - 3 of them being Harris, Maynard & Hughes - not of them particularly creative.
The sending off looked harsh. I was pretty close in the Kop and there was nothing more than handbags from what I saw. Their keeper, presumably frustrated having just let in a late goal, went down like he'd been knocked out and I think the ref fell for it. Hopefully video evidence will be clear enough and we can appeal.
Agree with RLC re M.o.m Jeff Hughes. He drove us forward and whilst I'm not his biggest fan, he was excellent. I still think though we need more in terms of turning all this possession in the final third into real chances where we are testing the keeper. Still think some guile and creativity in the final third is needed.
No Adam Dawson on the Eastleigh bench last night for a change...