enjoying a beer in the warm glow of a win for the first time in what feels like ages! But going to try and make some rational observations.
Pretty difficult to judge how good we were because Plymouth were just so bad. They absolutely crumbled second half. I can see why their fans were so angry. That said, they have astonishingly short memories - all calling for the managers head, even though they were in pretty much exactly the same position last year and nearly made the playoffs. A bit baffling.
We enjoyed a bit of a perfect storm today. The early goal was exactly what we needed. Mackie, as has been said, had a superlative performance. His goal was very well taken but I was so impressed by his movement, his battling and his linkup play. Quite how he won so many balls against two centre half a each a head taller than him I simply do not understand. And the way he sometimes came short, held the ball up and brought others into play, and others made well judged runs in behind was the kind of quality I’ve not seen in an OUFC front man in ages. His whole battling mindset, proper getting in their faces, was something we’ve not had since at least Hylton.
Others have also singled out Holmes and Browne and while they both had good games (bar some of Holmes’ decision making), I think it’s difficult to say whether they were very good or the Plymouth fullbacks were terrible. Because they really were. But I think Henry deserves credit - showed brilliant close control and looks a really good central midfielder.
Defensively we were solid enough. Dickie was a bit terrorised by their big man for about 50 minutes but we prevented Carey from playing really well. I think Ruffels deserves a mention - thought he was great today. Having Mousinho at CDM has also made us much more solid. Makes us competitive in the air in the middle and is a very intelligent player. I noticed him covering the full backs when they got pulled out of position a few times, plugging holes and making us solid. Credit to KR for the change in shape.
I have to say though that some of the standard of play throughout I haven’t seen since L2. We got it down and played it occasionally, but there were a hell of a lot of aimless hoofs down the channels.
Anything but a win here would have been horrendous, so it’s diffixult to give too much praise. But I’d like to think that now we’ve powered through our injury-hit patch we’re looking better. Two clean sheets in a row and four points. Tentatively regaining hope.
