The Blues are looking more comfortable in their duties as each game goes by, with gaffer Keith Millen citing the work on the training pitch as a key factor to the improvements seen.
“We keep mentioning the clean sheets, and that’s why I’ve been happy with the performances,” he said. “I know what we talk about and what we work on, I obviously don’t tell everybody what we do, but the outcome is shown in those clean sheets and those type of stats.
“That isn’t by luck, it’s through hard work and them listening and understanding what we’re asking of them on the training pitch.
“We do a lot of work inside on videos to show them what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well, and we’re just trying to make them better individually and as a team.
“That is really pleasing from my point of view, because you can see rewards from the way we’re working.”
Although hesitant to talk about individuals, the flexibility provided by Jon Mellish came in for praise at the midweek press conference.
“I spoke to Jon today [Thursday] because I felt that Tuesday was his best game since I’ve been at the club,” he revealed. “The reason I say that is because his running stats are unbelievable, he’s by far running the furthest distance and doing the most sprints.
“I felt against Hartlepool there was more discipline and structure to his game. He ran as far as he usually does when he’s been playing further forward, because he works so hard and covers so much distance.
“When you look at how effective he was in his running and how many chances or goals he created, I thought Tuesday was his most effective game.
“He had a bit of discipline to his efforts and he ran at the right times. He still got into goal scoring areas, he was better on the ball, and he had two or three chances in the second half.
“We know he can run all day, he does over 12km in distance covered every game, it’s more about how effective he is for the team, and I felt he really added that. I was pleased with him in that position in the last game.”
