my take on things,
First half played the ball round ok, but the midfield were way too deep, at times Barton was playing in between Wood and Martin. There first goal came (a little bit before hand mind) from Wilson loosing his footing in the middle of there half, he lost the ball which they took up to our penalty area got a corner and then another which for some reason our ability to defend set pieces went out the window (which is not the first time, all 5 managers have struggled with that this season...) But its the being caught on the break that i didn't like, from nearly being a position to score a goal to letting one in, in about what 2 minutes??? After that we took a while to get back into the game with Wilson looking very isolated.
At Half time Cody came on made a massive difference, Pressley told Baker and Bell to near enough play level with Cody which in turn brought Fleck and Conor further forward. In doing this we had a lot more of the play and scored a deserved equaliser form Fleck, who played alot better in the second half I thought. I think leading up to that Spell Bell had a few efforts and Mcdonald caused There defence problems, BUT, yet again poor defending from a set piece (which was yet again needlessly conceded) we let in a very very sloppy goal.....
After the goal it took Pressley a few mins to see we needed more fire power up top, which he did by bringing Moussa on, In doing this Fleck dropped to the "play maker" role and started to dictate the midfield, in doing so Blair Adams and Bell had a lot of the ball on the left, and Christie and Baker had a lot of the ball on the right (this actually looked quite promising IMO) With a dominant end to the game, where we had huge chunks of possession, we scored a deserved equaliser when McDonald pounced on a bad clearance from there keeper to set moussa up and score a very good goal! McDonald could have won it for us in the dying seconds but it wasn't to be.
I understand the frustrations with the way Pressley wants to play, BUT he needs the time to access all the players and not having a settled side as hes been accessing, to me this hasn't given us any really idea on how good or bad he will be for the club. All i know is when we passed it around yesterday and got the ball into the final third we looked a lot more threatening with a goal scorer in the Number 9 position, The return of Bell and to play him on the left hand side looks like a way forward, but do think we may need a pace solution, even if it is just as a replacement during a game!
One player who did have a bit of a mare was Martin, lets the ball bounce and for me didn't read the game as well as he should have, the center backs to me is the biggest weakness in the team, and i feel is more important to repair than any other position in the team!
Over all a decent performance, but without a settled team you can not judge Elvis (Robins good run came with that settled side before christmas.....)
Ratings
Dunn 6
Christie 7
Wood 6
Martin 5
Adams 7
Fleck 7
Barton 6
Thomas 6/7
Baker 6
Bell 8 (MoM)
Wilson 6
Subs
Mcdonald 7
Moussa 7