Halfway through the tie, nerves are already settling in ahead of Monday’s fixture. But, that being said, we can take comfort from the impressive way we managed the home match and kept Sheffield Wednesday at bay.
Under Alex Neil, we are extremely hard to beat and our game management is far improved. We look dominant, composed and for once in a League One season, we win individual battles all over the pitch. Granted not every time, Batth sometimes got floored by Gregory and in all honesty, we do look a bit weak on the left with Cirkin and Clarke, but this notwithstanding, the desire, commitment and heart were all there. Spirited and fitter, our once shell-shocked defence are now rejuvenated under Alex Neil’s leadership, we go again on Monday with a one goal lead and with a team high on confidence.
We could have done with another goal, granted. But unlike this time last season with Lee Johnson in charge, we go into the second leg with a lead and when the opposition get forward, I don’t worry half as much as before. I now have faith in a defence, composed of largely the same players who have at times conceded an embarrassing amount of goals. At the other end, I recognise that we have enough players who can score goals, which we demonstrated in the best of the Johnson days.
Predicting the outcome of the second leg is impossible, but a neutral would look at our astonishing run of unbeaten games, the quality of Pritchard, Stewart, Roberts and Broadhead (who might feature on Monday night). Broadhead’s pace and finishing, should we set up to counter, should give the Wednesday defence nightmares if he features.
The same imaginary neutral would have to counterbalance that with Wednesday’s great goalscoring record at home recently (19 goals at home in their last 7 games, albeit some coming against lesser opposition). They have been in good home form and if they want to progress, it is obvious to say but they need to create more. A 1-0 aggregate means they have to score 2 to go through in normal time. It’s really that simple. At the moment, it looks unlikely.
Therefore, Monday’s game will surely be more open. But last night, Berahino was ineffectual, we made Gregory look like Charlie Wyke at his worst and the influential Barry Bannan was marshalled well, snuffed out for large parts of the game. They didn’t really look like creating, let alone scoring.
I thought we were incredibly professional on Friday, tactically astute. If we can play like that for another 90 minutes, with that intensity and fitness, we will make it through to another play-off final. A packed-out Hillsborough awaits and, on the road, we’ve fared pretty well under Neil, 3-0 at Wigan (our best performance of the season, for me), 2-1 against Oxford, also avoiding defeat against Plymouth.
But that being said, we should have faith in Alex Neil to take us up next season, should we falter. We have a good core of players and I feel, if we are doomed to another League One season, we are only a few acquisitions away from a team which could go up automatically. It is a huge achievement to resurrect our once stuttering season and solidify the team in defence and midfield, utilising players which Neil had inherited. Tactically, we were spot on yesterday and we have been for most of his time here.
We say ‘keep the faith’ a lot as a fanbase. We also sing ‘things can only get better’ intermittently and last night, the ‘don’t worry about a thing’ chant resurfaced at one point. Of course, things have only got worse progressively, year on year and at points this season, particularly around January, we really were worrying about promotion.
But that ‘faith’ aspect seems to be paying dividends recently. It’s no wonder that the marketing strategy introduced a new phrase, plastered by the club online – ‘til the end’. Even when we don’t play as well, like against Rotherham, we seem to have that luck that has evaded us in previous seasons and last-minute chances present themselves right at the death.
I’m not into new age thinking; I don’t believe in stars aligning for us, but I do feel as if we are making our own luck, that it comes from perseverance. There’s a good feeling around the club at the moment and last night was the best home match for a number of years. For the lucky few going down on Monday, no doubt it will be a great away fixture.
We can have faith in our great defensive record and this faith should be anchored by our impressive performance and 1-0 lead. Wednesday have to take the game to us and that’s a good thing. A totally different game awaits us, but Alex Neil will be prepared for it. As ever, keep the faith.
