A few things came to mind when I was watching the second half & trying to figure out why we looked off the pace after a great 1st half. Fitness could have been an issue for one or two players, given the very high tempo we set trying to get level, I agree Freeman looked like he was blowing out of his backside & Norwood started making misplaced passes, so physically or mentally tired it has the same effect, but the way players are trained & monitored these days it would surprise me, for whatever reason there was a clear shift & we need to find out why. Of course it could just be that Derby imposed themselves on us in the same way we did to them 1st half.
Also, CW has "fixed" what he saw as problem areas for us last year, ie Hendo, Egan & Norwood, & they have made us better, that is indisputable surely, but we are SUFC & we don't have the money to completely rebuild a team in one pre-season, so our other problem areas, ie upfront & a Duffy replacement, would I think be his priority, maybe Woodburn was meant to fill one of those places but so far it hasn't panned out.
Still, it all seems a bit churlish to grumble; I am delighted by our progression over CW's leadership, our style of football is great to watch & it is clear we are going in the right direction; sure there will be bumps in the road, but IMO last night wasn't one of them, for 44 minutes of the 1st half a big spending team with a "spotlight manager", who incidentally are much further down that road than we are, couldn't get the ball off us. We had one cleared off the line near the end otherwise we would have gotten the draw I thought we deserved talking the game as a whole, but losing the game doesn't alter what I have written above, lets not get too "massive" & keep the faith.
