Dean Smith
Excellent tactical adjustment to the personnel available. Without Jack's ability to hold possession and with Jedniak's lack of speed we played a very different defence set up. Much narrower and deeper, at times happy to sit and force Bristol into attacking arierally. This required discipline from El Ghazi (where he has improved as the season has gone on - despite his refusal to ever commit to any tackle with a physical element needed to win the ball) and Adomah but also a huge effort on their part to get forward and quickly when we broke up Bristol's attacks. We still looked vulnerable at times without Mings - but the set up and the willingness to play out a little less compared to recent weeks, meant that on the whole we kept them at arms length for significant periods. Well adjusted Dean!
Players
El Ghazi's best game once he realised at half time that he had their full back. He made full use of coming inside and looking to shoot or slip others in with reverse passes. Also, willing to cross earlier and earlier. Hourianne should have benefited with at least three goals. If he carries on in this vein, we will struggle to keep him unless we go up.
SJM - everywhere - the legs of the team and the dynamism with and without the ball. As he develops his passing and poise, which at times can be lacking, what a player we will have! Of late he's starting to add the cross-field ball to either side with much greater accuracy and this then creates space for late runs into the box for balls in. A really added bonus to his dribbling and shifting possession quickly to Grealish.
Tammy - hold up play and keeping possession can be poor - but he's a handful at all times, chases defenders and balls all day and is so often in the right place at the right time, you have to take his flaws with his huge positives. He's 21! Should have laid off to SJM in the first half though....striker's selfish streak??
Taylor, Jedinak, Whelen, Adomah, Tzansebe, Lansbury and Davis all performed roles well - no one underperformed with the exception of ......
Hourianne - and that's only because his finishing ended up making the whole game much too tense for my heart rate in the second half. He gets in so many good positions, drifting into the box late, that he should have had four yesterday.
Referee
Should have sent Johnson off - what a whining, disingenuous little man he is. ( look at the difference between his post match bitterness and Smith on the pitch shaking every Bristol players hand like they were his players. Class always tells!)
Bring on the play offs and hopefully an away leg at the baggies first??
UTV