Credit to the team for sticking that one out and snatching a win, because I thought we'd thrown that away. While that was probably the worst game each of Atkinson, Gorrin and Long particularly have had in a while, there were a lot of uncharacteristically poor performances across the park. Unforced errors, wayward passing, poor communication, there was a lot bad about that performance. 4231 just doesn't work. There's no real reason why it wouldn't, you would have thought that on paper we have the personnel, but it just leaves so much space in the middle of the park for us. It's a slight worry, as it means we don't have much of a viable Plan B from that perspective.
But there are so many positives. CB playing a full 90 is massive. Henry changed the game - THAT was the kind of performance we've been missing all season, THAT is the Henry that could be a cult hero here in the years to come. The fact that we managed to win despite so many players playing quite poorly is testament to our strength of character and, to be less cliched, our strength in depth. Two players we brought off the bench scored. We made a lot of changes to the team that won so well on Saturday, and still won. I also think we're seeing signs of Winnall starting to come good - he got into good positions a couple of times today, though he is clearly still struggling for fitness. And finally, we have a manager who, despite his faults, has the ability to change games at half time that need changing. It's happened more than once now, and is a really valuable attribute.
A word for Rochdale, who I thought were really good. I don't really understand how they're so far down the table, given the trouble they caused us, and when compared to some of the dross we've played in the last few weeks. Losing like that is an absolute sickener, and I'm not convinced a draw would have been an unfair result.
This feels like a significant moment. This feels like the kind of game you look back on at the end of the season and think, we did bloody well to pick up three points there. Seven wins in a row is no joke, it belies a level of consistency and quality that is the hallmark of very good teams, and I think there's a swell of belief growing, both on here and in that dressing room. Other results didn't really go our way tonight (although Posh drawing at home to Bristol Rovers is useful, and surprising), but the playoffs seem increasingly possible.