Jordan Gibson took his tally to five for the season with what was a difficult strike from a touch from Danny Butterworth that came spinning his way.
“It’s confidence, because he’s in good form, but he’s showed good technique as well because it was a bouncing ball and a difficult chance,” manager Paul Simpson said. “He got really good contact on it and the keeper couldn’t get enough on it to keep it out.
“It was a huge relief to see that hit the back of the net. It doesn’t really matter if Butts meant to do what he did for the goal, the positive thing was that he made a forward run.
“That was one of the things we wanted in the second half because in the first half we had lots of good play, but a lot of it was in front of them.
“At half time I said I wanted forward runs. I thought Sean Maguire was making some really good runs all game, but I wanted the same from Butts and Jordan Gibson.
“The ball over the top was good and he got a good bit of contact on it, I don’t really know what he meant to do, but it doesn’t really matter.
“It was good that Jordan also followed it and ran in there. It was Gav’s idea about 30 seconds earlier to swap Gibbo and Sean to see if we could get something different, so credit Gav for that.
“Gibbo made the run into the box and I thought it was still a really good finish because he had a lot to do. He got good power on it and kept it on target, and thankfully he could wheel away in celebration.”
Speaking more about the contribution from Danny Butterworth, who made his first league start for the club, he added: “He’s certainly answered the questions I’ve been asking of him because I’ve asked him to be more productive.
“He’s got to be effective in games, he’s a little bit like I was as a player in that he doesn’t give us a lot out of possession, but when he’s on the ball he’s a talented boy.
“He can go past people and get you up the pitch. He’s got to keep this up now and keep doing the right things.
“It may not be the right system for us this weekend, so it may be that he’s come in and if Alfie is fit he might come back into it.
“It’s nice to be able to get somebody to come into it, and it shows if you do it properly in those games, like he did against Blackpool, then it’s going to benefit you in the games where you get your opportunity.”
On the reason for McCalmont’s absence, he explained: “He came off on Saturday with a bit of tightness around the top of his thigh.
“We were a little bit concerned that he had a slight strain, but that’s really settled over the last couple of days.
“He tried to train yesterday [Monday] but felt as though he couldn’t really open up.
“I made a decision not to risk him and he’s been in for some treatment and he’s feeling a lot better again. I’m hoping come Thursday he’ll be able to train and then we’ll make a decision from there.”