The signs were all there for an afcb win. My grandson mentioned Percy Thrower (or Flower as he called him) for some unknown reason the night before. As we arrived in Shrewsbury, we passed the Percy Thrower Garden Centre. Then, at the Brookfield Hotel, there was a blackboard advertising their forthcoming musical attraction – a certain ‘Eddie P’. This game’s in the bag I thought.
afcb brought back Grabban for Tubbs and were otherwise unchanged.
I haven’t watched an afcb game for a long time when I was so confident of winning………..almost from the start. The first five minutes, when we were defending in front of the away end, we looked a little tentative. Trying to be a bit too clever on the ball. It was those same five minutes at Sheffield Wednesday last season when Lee Bradbury thought we had been ‘all over them’ – but the next 85 minutes or so was nothing like our visit to Hillsborough.
Once Pugh had been brought down for an obvious penalty (my view was of course totally unimpeded from about 100 yards away) and Pitman had put away the spot kick, the result was never in doubt. It was almost as if Pitman had told their keeper where he was going to put the ball – and then drilled it in the corner, despite a good dive.
We spent the rest of the first half playing neat football without creating anything clear cut of note. Defensively we were calm and Francis, in particular, was superb in tackling and winning the ball back with no fuss. The best I’ve seen him play this season.
Arter and O’Kane were excellent in their work rate and when a ball was lost through over elaborating, the team just worked that bit harder to win the ball back. Ritchie and Pugh were great outlets and Pitman and Grabban were all clever movement. Allsop had very little to do.
Personally I was looking forward to seeing their central defenders at closer quarters in the second half – surely they weren’t as bad as they looked from a distance………….they were. If they had met before, it could have only been very briefly.
Shrewsbury came close to a goal early in the second half when Cook cleared off the line via the crossbar with a header.
Almost immediately after that, the game was effectively over. You just knew Pitman was going to score – and where he was going to put the shot. Turning inside on to his right foot, looking up to the top left corner of the keeper’s goal, and curling the ball in. You just have to admire a striker who shows you what he’s going to do and then does it.
Pitman’s ‘hat trick’ was not to be – a nice back header from a left wing cross, which their defender superbly rifled in off the bar at the far post. Pitman’s header wasn’t going in, but I hope that at least he gets an assist in the match stats.
After that, it was like watching Barcelona – only better. We passed them to death. Comfortable was understating it. Players were rested and subs came on, but the control never deserted us.
Allsop – 7.5 – very little to do
Francis – 8.5 – great display of solid tackling and positional play
Cook – 7.5 – for the header off the line and a solid performance
Elphick – 8 – so calm and a great leader
Daniels – 8 – this guy just gets better and better
Ritchie – 7.5 – a bit over elaborate at times but worked hard
Arter – 8 – non stop performance and only ‘chatted’ with the ref from time to time – not constantly
O’Kane – 8.5 – terrific performance of skilful passing and workrate
Pugh – 7.5 – for winning the penalty and being a good ‘out ball’
Grabban – 7.5 – great display of movement off the ball and running the channels – deserves a goal – and soon I hope
Pitman – 9 – we haven’t had a goalscorer like Brett for a very long time. A very classy display.
Now we just need more of the same in the next two games.
Report by Ronnie Bolton
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