Forward Omari Patrick became a real thorn in the side for Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon as he worked along their back line and, ultimately, did the legwork for the winning goal with a peach of a cross.
“He’s getting fitter,” manager Paul Simpson said. “He’s come into the side and had to get fit in the team, which I’ve said before I don’t really like, but because of the circumstances, we need him in there.
“He’s got sheer pace about him, he can do different things. Today he tested the goalkeeper a little bit better, he went past people. He had a great run in the second half inside the box, pulled it back and it went for a corner.
“He did a lot of good things, and I’m hoping he’s getting fitter and fitter, and more confident, more belief in himself, and we’ll see even more from him.”
Touching on his role in his strike partner’s seventh goal of the season, he added: “I had a conversation with Omari last week about getting in there, at the far post.
“I joked about a thing we used to have when I was playing, they called it the POMO, the position of maximum opportunity. You just get in at that far post.
“I said it’ll look like you’re really lucky because you’ll get six or seven tap-ins, but there’s no luck about it if you put yourself in those areas. That’s what Kristian Dennis did. That’s a forward-thinker.
“Get yourself into those areas and you’ll score lucky tap-in goals. I’m really pleased for Denno. The big thing about it for me, this is his reward for coming back in a right good level of fitness for pre-season.
“He came back in shape, and worked really hard. He’s not one who’s at the front of all the running but he gives it everything he’s got. He’s getting goals for us and I’m delighted for him.”
Getting on the end of that majestic flick from Jack Armer is typical of the form United’s leading scorer is in at this moment in time.
“That’s that knowledge, that goalscoring knowledge, so he does it,” the gaffer commented. “The other thing I thought he did really well, he gets himself in front of defenders, he’s a pest, he drops in deep and picks things up and links it.
“I think he’s had a really good start to the season on top of the goals he’s scoring. Hopefully he just keeps getting better. He’s continued to work hard and do the stuff he needs to.
“The miss on Tuesday, I’m quite sure he’s had many of those moments as a centre forward, but he doesn’t shirk it. He doesn’t hide away. He got himself back in there and it was a lovely little finish for him.
“I don’t mind those, them little tap-ins at the far post. He knows where the goal is and he’s just got to keep scoring. As I keep saying, I want others to chip in as well.”
Dwelling more on the fact that our left wing back was somehow in the box to provide the assist, he told us: “They have got freedom, and Jack obviously thought he was still playing as a wing back at that point when he went flying forward.
“If he gets on the end of things I don’t mind. Fin Back got in at the far post and I thought the defender did really well because he just got enough on it to ease underneath him and knock him off balance.
“I do want our wing backs, full backs or whatever you want to call them to get into the box because we do have to get bodies in dangerous areas. We have to make sure we secure the back line as well, and keep things tight, but if we have Jack and Fin going forward to join the front men we have to have others who will provide the cover, be that halfway or around our box.
“That’s when you see that we tweak the shape, because we have players who can do that. Mellish can do a midfield role for us, and I wanted him in there to go and show some energy.
“We had a front three up against their back players because we needed to try to stop the ball from coming forward at source. Our forward players did that, but we probably didn’t do it particularly well in the way we started the game.
“That’s why we changed it and put Gibbo up against Maghoma. We were still a little bit negative and I wanted to see us push higher. It worked, even though it was a tough game.
“They’ve had to put a real shift in because I didn’t want to change it, I felt the 11 just by changing the shape would give us a forward-thinking approach. They’ve all had to do 90 minutes but they made it work and they’re really happy with their win.”