I WAS pleased to see Corry Evans and Hope Akpan get on the scoresheet on Saturday. When was the last time we had two centre-midfielders doing that in the same game?

Corry, in particular, looks like he’s been given a new lease of life.

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He’s not getting shackled sitting in front of the back four. He’s playing with Hope and they are doing it the old-fashioned way, if you like, that piston movement in midfield.

One goes back and the other goes forward, they are playing it really well, and for Corry especially, it’s allowing him to get up there and have strikes at goals.

Not too long ago he was 30 yards deeper, and waiting to make a tackle after the ball got cleared.

Don’t get me wrong, he can do that holding role, but I think you’re taking away a major part of his game, and that’s getting forward.

He was very unlucky not to score against Preston but he got one against Sheffield Wednesday. It’s encouraging.

The same could be said of the way we started both matches.

On Saturday we got about a team who have been very good this season and who have spent a bit of money.

Like against Preston we couldn’t maintain it but it will keep building and keep building, and eventually we’ll be able to do it for 70 minutes.

When you’re pressing higher up the park you need a higher level of fitness, much more so than when you’re sitting back and you’re not really chasing.

And the only way you’re going to get that is playing in games – and that’s what the guys have been doing.

In both games they have put in a very difficult shift but they will be better and stronger for it.

I’ve always said the first six games are massively important under a new manager as that’s when you start to see changes.

At the beginning you see minimal changes but then it grows game by game and you are beginning to see what Paul Lambert and his team want to do.

And the result itself on Saturday? As I have always said I believe we should be winning our home games.

But Sheffield Wednesday proved why they are up at the top of the table just now. They are a difficult side to beat and they can score goals as well.

So I was not too disappointed with a point. If you would have turned it around and said we’d get a point at Preston and then beat Sheffield Wednesday, I think everybody would have been happy with that.

Now let’s try and get three points at Bristol City.