I’ve just copied the attacking momentum across from Sofa Score for the end of the previous page, as I usually do, and it’s quite a surprise. It shows we were as good in the first as we were in the second, but we did things better in the second half. I think the second period played right into our hands, especially with the early goals.

The leveller was a thing of beauty. I like to look at who plays the pass before the assist, who is involved in the goal and won’t be credited, and in this instance, we’re looking at O’Connor and Roughan. O’Connor, by the way, was lucky to stay on the field after a first-half foul on Stockley. At the time, I thought yellow and argued with people around me a red would have been silly, but looking back, he’s studs up and lunging. Still, he had a decent game for the rest of the afternoon, and he plays a ball to Roughan, who finds Reeco. After a challenging first 45, the former Pompey man came alive, and his cross was more delicious than the full English served up to me by Wragby Corn Dolly a few hours before. Instead of me gobbling it down, it was Ben House, rising like a salmon and placing a superb header past the keeper from the angle.

City were level, and it was the first League One goal scored by an out-and-out striker we owned all season. I’m not sure that has ever happened – the only other striker’s goal so far this season was Jack Vale against Cambridge United. There’s one thing the goal screamed to me – the band are back. Big Ben House on form, Reeco, electric in the first few months, serving up treats, even Sean Roughan involved, in from the cold a year or so ago.

Four minutes later, it was game, set and match. Ted Bishop, man of the match by some distance in my eyes, threaded a ball through the eye of a needle from a free kick. Reeco picked it up, jinxed into the area and crossed, only to see the ball headed up in the air and away. McGrandles hovered, then dropped out of the way as the Great Dane lashed a volley into the back of the net. From 1-0 down to 2-1 up in the space of minutes, and a goal that makes Lasse our leading scorer in all competitions from open play. I love seeing a happy Lasse, and his celebrations were justified. We’d seen two home goals in five games (Reading, Bolton, Northampton, Peterborough and Derby), but suddenly, we had two in five minutes.

That switched the complexion of the game, and Fleetwood now had to break us down. They almost did, straight away. A move started by Stockley finished with him seemingly destined to level, only for Jensen to pull out an unbelievable save with his feet. The xG for Stockley’s chance was 0.71, only marginally less than for a penalty, and it was a hugely worrying moment – the last of the game from Fleetwood’s point of view.

We weren’t finished; after that, I never felt in trouble. House could have had a hattrick, one a deep corner recycled by Lasse, which he flicked over from eight yards under pressure, and then his final touch of the game, a carbon copy of his goal with Roughan and Reeco combining to deliver a wonderful cross, which he headed over. Conor McGrandles could have marked his first start for City in his current spell with a goal, another break down the left, another Reeco cross, and the Scot had all the time in the world to place his shot, only for their keeper to get the merest of touches to send it wide. From the resulting corner, Taylor won the ball with a tackle to stop a Fleetwood break; Eyoma picked it up and fed Roughan, who saw his effort saved once again. It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff, and that’s not something we’ve said often.

There was a moment that had me incensed before that final flurry of chances – Adam Jackson had his nose smashed across his face by a Stockley elbow, and I’m not sure how the former Exeter man got away with it. The ref is right in front of it, looking straight at the clash, but as people on our Patreon supporter Discord channel have seen, Stockley just throws his arm across Jacko’s face. I don’t like Stockley, which means he is a decent striker, much like other fans didn’t used to like Rhead. Doubtless, some Fleetwood fans reading this (if any got past the first few paragraphs) will be saying stuff like ‘cry more’, but he’s on a booking, he chucks an arm into a defender’s face and doesn’t get a second yellow? It wasn’t the first time he led with his elbow either; he’s a modern-day Jason Lee, that’s for sure.

As we rolled into injury time, Steve and Dad, sitting behind me, said that there was one more chance for Fleetwood. I didn’t want to tempt fate, but I didn’t see where from. They had four all game, one which we gifted them, and nothing after 59 minutes. We didn’t coast through the last half hour but were never threatened. I know their manager will blame the red card; it’s an easy thing to hide behind, but they didn’t impress me much at all, and I can see why they’re down there. Take Stockley out, a constant threat in the air (but average on the floor), and I’d put them as one of the poorest teams we’ve seen this season in terms of attacking output. Sure, they’re organised at the back, combative and strong, but I can’t see them getting out of relegation trouble. As a wise man once said, they’re just too susceptible to losing football matches.

As for us, I came away super impressed. We had 28 touches in the penalty area – the same as we had when we beat Accrington 3-0 last season, and bettered only by Plymouth at home in the last two years. We delivered 27 crosses from a season average of 11, with a 51% success rate from a season average of 30%. We attacked with pace, created chances, and had more than 2 xG for the second time in five matches.

Ted was outstanding, the man of the match by a mile, but there were other big performances. Ben House and Reeco added the sort of dynamic to our attack which we now know was lacking so much post-September, whilst Conor McGrandles and Ethan Erhahon worked superbly together – we controlled the midfield so well. Jacko didn’t win many of his duels with Stockley, but he did marshall the striker well. I thought Sean Roughan was excellent again as well – his intelligence allows us to play the shape we do, and he links up so well with Reeco on the left. There wasn’t a bad player on the pitch, but Joe Taylor does need a goal. He gets in so many good positions, and unlike Jack Vale and Luke Plange, our last two big loan strikers, you feel Taylor will score, but he needs one. If he gets it, I think he’ll end the season with five or six, but it’ll need to be in the next couple of weeks otherwise, he’ll run out of games!

I came away from the ground buzzing. For once, the perceived referee injustice wasn’t on us, but I think Daniel Middleton did a solid job. Oddly, he reffed our last home win before this, against Charlton back in October. That’s mad, isn’t it? We hadn’t won at home since October, and before yesterday, we didn’t have a striker that we owned with a single goal to his name. Despite this, we ended the afternoon in tenth position, right at the top of the little mini table, with six points the difference between eight teams below us and six points the difference between us and the two above. We also featured a nucleus of a squad that has been together for a while now, whether that’s having been out on loan and coming back in, leaving the club and coming back in, or returning from injury. It feels like we’re just a couple of steps away from being a top-six challenger to me; it really does, as a result of solid recruitment, season after season, and finally finding a coach who can play decent attacking football whilst ensuring we’re not leaky at the back. There have been a couple of false dawns since COVID in terms of promotion challenges, but I can see this current progress being the early shoots of something much more exciting further down the line.

Maybe I’m just turning into an optimist. Maybe I’m just drunk on back-to-back wins and five unbeaten. Whatever it is, I don’t care; I bloody love it.

Up the Imps.

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