We were talking about this at half time and concluded that Ashby was playing to instructions as he was playing more as a winger and picking up Manning to prevent him from linking up with Fraser and getting into attacking positions as we all know he likes to, especially under Martin, and this worked as I don't recall Manning getting into many, if any, serious attacking positions in the first half. This meant that Darling was covering right back position as he had done many times and if they'd had someone less capable than Fraser wide left, that would probably have worked better too. If Ashby wasn't playing to instructions, Darling would have been bending his ear every time he had to engage with Fraser and I'm pretty sure this never happened at it would have been right in front of where I sit and would have been clearly noticeable. The thing that was annoying us, was that when we had the ball, Ashby was taking up positions in acres of space and Darling in particular wasn't getting the ball to him quickly enough but on one of the few occasions when we did, he skinned Manning beautifully and picked out Lowe with a cross that ultimately led to our goal.
