I disagree with the 'seat of the pants' brigade. As Lister said in his original post, it was the sloppy controls that alerted him to check the airspeed. This is where low speed/stall/spin awareness training comes in.
However, the way to stop yourself getting into trouble on finals in a light aircraft is to scan the speed. Forget AoA as most light aircraft do not have an AoA gauge fitted.
There is one other important point of accurate airspeed on finals that has not been mentioned yet which I believe is particularly important for low hours pilots. A known speed will have a known control response. Allow the speed to decay and the 'sloppy' elevator response during the flare could cause a heavy landing. Too fast and the 'firm' response could cause a balloon followed by a heavy landing. The old saying of 'a good landing comes from a good approach' is true and speed is one of the important factors.