Think they were more distracted by the Hugill saga than we were. So great credit to AN and the players for being so focussed. They would have been pleased that our star striker was not even on the bench and with the distraction they expected it to cause us. They would have expected us to be a weaker team without him.
I think that they may have been slightly complacent which didn't help their cause, but the reason they looked poor was our constant pressing high up the pitch and our positive use of the ball when we'd won it. Every one of our players worked so hard all match. We gave them no time to settle and create any forward momentum for themselves. They were forced into mistake after mistake and it became a game where their players were just trying to not keep failing and ours were constantly forcing those errors and capitalising on every one.
One further point to note was our solid defensive play. The back five played really well. I was pleased for Josh Earl. He didn't have the best game on Saturday but he was superb last night. He played one sloppy pass in the first minute and then had a storming 89 minutes. He defended well and was really good attacking too with his positive forward thinking approach. Some great feints and turns, changes of pace, dribbling, passing and crossing and linking up with the attack. His size and strength are a good asset too.
