Firstly, I am grateful for what at one stage seemed an unlikely win, created by new loanee Josh Hawkes and a bullet header from Tom Davies. If this is to be a turning point of our season, then the pros and cons of what went on today won't be so important with the passage of time.
As said earlier though, I hope not to see us line up like this again. I don't think the defenders we've got operate well in a back 3, which was how it seemed to me that we set up, the BBC suggested a 442. Knight-Percival had a torrid time on the left and he tends to lunge in at times, leaving his team-mates exposed. With current personnel, my preference would be restoring Merrie to left-back until Macdonald/or perhaps Maguire return to full fitness. Starting without any width further up the pitch didn't work either for me, we didn't have any pace and were tending to get bogged down in midfield dead ends. It also didn't make best use of Maynard, a player who operates mainly in the box. If Nicky had been playing for Pools today, he'd have bagged himself a few with the balls they were playing in the danger area, as it was he was taken off to be replaced by Macmanaman, who could have supplied him some ammunition. Feel it would have been better with the midfield Micky picked to start with Glatzel or even Dieseruvwe, as Maynard was working with scraps. Tom Davies, a defender having the most goal attempts for Rovers is telling. Wasn't sure about Duffy, felt he got brushed off the ball too easily, while today at least, he didn't make the best judgements, holding onto the ball too long and one free-kick to us in the visitors half, ending up with Josh Cogley needing to make a last-ditch tackle in Rovers' penalty area.
I'd also go for Josh Cogley as MoM all over the park, might have had a penalty and Challinor mentions the no 2 as problem for them in his interview. Honourable mentions to Nevitt who had a decent game, Spearing who picked up well after an iffy start and did a lot of the less glamourous tidying up play and Hawkes who helped turn the game in our favour with a promising debut.