Holmes_and_Watson

Mara on for Adams

Brooks bright and keen to create things.

Brooks did very well there. Surely a booking for their player?

Ball not falling for Stu today. they are on the break, but can;t do anything with the ball in. Not a great one defensively from Saints that one. They will be disapointed with that one.

As near to a close shave as this game is likely to have. 🙂

AA trying to return the favour for Che with another delveiry from deep. Decent to have, that drawing them out, but able to hit from deep. Keeps them pegged back a bit.

Subs will be interesting. Our tempo is slower than it should be here. But Brooks and ROthwell are the two least used to the system. Let's see how that works. Brooks for Fraser Rothwell for Downes

Brooks on for ...

Not Stu's day on keeping the ball under a challenge. We get back well, again something we keep get improving on. Subs incoming...

quiet...quiet.. then a lovely deep chip from Che into space for AA, who knows the pass is coming. Really catches Rotherham out.

Che quieter. But Manning whipping his passes, doesn;t really help anyone. Manning could do with some time with Baz, learning more about weighting them better. Manning's distribution would be better if he relaxed more about it, rather than over trying to ensure a complete pass.

Smallbone watch: Doesn;t win a challenge, which he's been getting better at through the season. Chases back and puts so much pressure on their player, that when faced with a decision he falls over and we win it back.

AA with a little expression there, knowing that there was nothign on in our break from their free kick. Lovely Smallbone pass into AA seconds later. Couldn;t get it past their keeper.

That was good from Manning there, knowing to play it into space for Stu.

He's not had much more than a good save to do in the first half, and getting a couple of corners clear. So worth pointing out a lovely trademark Baz kick out to KWP there.

Ref has a word with Stu and one of theires. A second later, it still continues and the ref gives the card he was warning them about. Just hope we're waiting to pounce here. They aren;t troubling Baz and Bedders and THB look like a well drilled unit.

They get a corner. We finally got a break there, but Stu got caught with a challenge and they got it back. I was looking forward to seeing what we'd do with that level of space. The sort of space Alcaraz >sniff< would have loved running into.

We are inviting some challenges in here. Working the smallest of spaces and angles. Just drawing them out a bit. A pretty confident team to be doing that.

Nice from Downes. He made sure he won that after Stu's pass went astray.

An effort form outside the box. No worries for Baz. A bit more possession from Rotherham, although no issues yet.

Dial up a village elder to consult the runes. 🙂

We had a few efforts to get the ball back in thatRotherham attack. Just enough to put them off. In the end, Manning did fine to get it back for us. nother example a few seconds later of us winning some tackles. Nice to see that side of us.

Ah. I was hoping AA would that one in there. We did have a coupe of folk. But it went back. Anotehr one from Manning, where he gets into a good position to receive the ball. But the final ball doens;t work out. Points for trying, and hopefully this will get better.

Underway! COYR!

Last few mins of the half have been a little scrappier. We've got it back under control again. But, with THB, we still look up in case there's soemthing really good on. Manning with a decent run. His deliveries not matching the work that goes into them a fair bit of the time. Half time. We got the dominance right from the start. Got an early goal and controlled it throughout. As if that wasn't good enough, we often say that there's more to come. We've got a settled starting 11 at the moment, and you can see there's a bit more comfort in there. Just that extra familiarity and time together, developing us as a team. Little link ups with KWP and AA. Smallbone looking that bit more comfortabel in those advanced poistions as games go by, knwoing that Downes and the others are doing the leg work behind him. We're also looking stronger. That's right across the team today. We've passed and controled. But we've got it back when we've needed to as well. Another half for Martin and the team to be very pleased with. More in teh second half please.