We didn't have to get out of third gear

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Against a big physical 1p5wich side it was a case of stand up and be counted and to a man our players did just that.

Beyond that the mantra seems to be that if we work hard and compete our ability will come through and we will win games. That is what we did today.

In the first half the difference for me was Wes Hoolahan''s ability on the ball and in the pass. In the build up to BJ''s thunderbolt he picked up the ball deep, feinted a couple of times, gave give and go with Grabs and sent the opposition the wrong way with a couple of reverse passes.

Alex Neil said pre-match it was all about the win and in this run we are ''managing'' our results and performances even down to when to pick up a booking because we are taking a long view.

Simply put, we did what we needed to do, no more, no less and in that respect to beat 1p5wich we didn''t have to get out of third gear. Their possession was what we allowed them at key times and then we picked them off. Neil has the happy knack of making his subs make a difference. Hughton never understood this.

We are not grinding out results because we are too much in control of games for that; we are working to Alex Neil''s script and today was a prime example.

McCarthy was captured having a foul mouthed rant at one of our players. It looked like Grabban but he called someone an f''ing see you next Tuesday. He has lost any respect I had for him. He looked like a rabbit in headlights today and in his post match interview he still hadn''t grasped how Alex Neil mastered him and his bunch of hoofing lumps.

[daz 70]

to be fair... u say didn''t get out of 3rd gear but I thought near the end 70mins on we started to look a little tired.... good job we have a nice big squad to choose from with quality players in ! :)

ipshhhhiiiit might as well have been playing rugby today with the amount of hoofballs and physicality ! :D

[93vintage 16]

We seem to be a lot better at winning the ball back than under the previous two managers. This aspect of our game seems a lot more clever and organised.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I think we will see at least three different starters on Wednesday, Daz. And plenty of our squad have had game time under this clever manager.

[Fiery Zac 1,066]

It was Wes that McCarthy was having a go at over the incident of giving them the ball back after a stoppage for injury. Wes played the ball back but it went out for a throw which Grabban started to them close down until wes told him to let their keeper have it and McCarthy cooled down and gave a thumbs up to our bench. Silly stuff but we would''ve reacted the same.