It will be interesting to see what HNA makes of BM's decision to go 4-5-1 at Donny. He's apparently quite keen on a "horses for courses" approach when it comes to picking the side. Gunnar, Karacan and Howard didn't manage to impose themselves on the game in the first half hour - we created nothing and Rovers looked far more likely to produce a telling ball. Griffin and Mills particularly dealt with the threat quite impressively. Slowly we got into the game and started to play some football. The goal came from one of our first real efforts on goal. Howard had drifted out on the right and produced a great cross which Long met with a glancing header into the far corner. You could say it was against the run of play, but we had started to look more comfortable by then. We started the 2nd half very well and Long looked dangerous taking on their centre-backs. After their keeper had made good saves to deny ranged shots from Howard and Long we got the second, the ball being played across the outmanned Donny defence to Long and then on to Howard, who finished well. That should have been us home and dry, but for Mills' red card. No view of it at all but presumably it was for deliberate handball. Sharp scored the penalty and made for a nervy last 20 mins (including a gut-wrenching 6 minutes added on). Felt for Church, who gave way to Khizanishvili about 15 mins after coming on. We totally gave up any idea of holding on to the ball, which was pretty frustrating. However our back four held out alright, the only Donny chances coming from outside the box. One skimmed the top of the crossbar, while the other two brought stunning saves from Federici, who was pretty much immaculate today. A hard-earned but deserved three points, and it's hard to argue that BM didn't get his approach right. Donny looked utter rubbish, confirming once again that there's no good reason why our squad shouldn't be midtable.
The good:
Howard, my MOTM - not in the game for the first half hour but made a goal, scored one, made an excellent goal-saving tackle in the second half and used the ball dangerously throughout. When we return to 4-4-2 next game, he should stay.
Long - tireless and hard-working on a tough night for him. Took his only good chance well and produced a great save from outside the box. Remarkable.
The back four and Federici - haven't seen the handball so can't judge how much Mills was at fault. He was heading for my MOTM before that, and as a unit the defence was pretty good today. Federici deserves massive credit for his saves.
The bad:
Karacan - looked a little lost again and spunked two hopelessly over the bar, one from a good position. I still like to see his name on the teamsheet, but I wouldn't complain or be surprised to see him lose out to Howard and Gunnar.
McAnuff - quiet all game, didn't have much of an impact. That might have had something to do with his being stationed out on the left for much of the game, while Kebe was allowed the right side. Not the best decision in my opinion.
Kebe wasn't great but had a good run or two and one decent cross, so by his standards a pretty good performance.
Well done lads, well done BM. It was more of a struggle than it needed to be, but it's a mark of our improvement that we would have been disappointed to come away with less than three points. Great to hear the away support singing out "Brian McDermott's Barmy Army."
Any news on Sigurdsson?
