That was so good. The best I have seen the Phoenix play, after a somewhat rum opening 20, when I was surprised we were still in it (we scored with our first attack!). Same formation as Sunday with the excellent, but less strong in the air Durante replacing the suspended Dodd.
Manny Muscat lived up to his pre-season promise, Lochhead was effective and dangerous, Durante was excellent and Sigmund continues to be our best all-round defender, despite looking like a short, podgy marine.
Ferrante was irrelevant (an improvement), Fred lightweight, Brown muscular (and scoring a top goal) and McKain magnificent - the difference between the teams for my money.
Bertos was okay, with some wonderful moments and Smeltz was Smeltz. Battered to pieces, strong as an ox, and scorer of a goal that was, frankly, Collymore-esque. There is no higher praise.
It just felt marvellous.
And I forgot to mention the superb work by keeper Paston. I get many, many things wrong about football( although I am not yet wrong about Ferrante) but I feel vindicated about this one. Paston isn't a shot-stopper to the standard of Moss, but gives such confidence to the ack four that even the varied line-ups of this season have seemed stronger in front of him. And the saves he made last night were actually rather classy. And when the ball was there to be held, he held it, rather than spilling it across the box.
I called this match as a 0-4 before the game, expecting Allsopp to continue his rampage and Archie Thompson to thrive. Happily wrong.
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