It was interesting that the starting line-up fielded most of those playing last season apart from Ryan Woods and Chong, this left plenty of options on the bench. The oft-criticised Jeremie Bela both chased back and found time to put in some delightful crosses, and looks a far better player under Lee Bowyer’s influence. In fact both Scott Hogan and the Juke should have netted but this was immaterial with Maxime Colin heading our winner.

Craig Gardner, as usual, worked like a Trojan and with the classy Woods, he helped out a defence which played manfully under late second half pressure.

Perhaps most impressive was the working back, not only of Bela but Chong as well which meant we could afford the luxury of two strikers. How good it was to see an attacking strategy by the manager and hopefully long gone are the days when players were frightened of their own shadows.