On the defeat

A very disappointing defeat. We didn’t really get going. The instructions were to put balls in the box and I felt we tried to be too nice in the final third. We’re not a team that scores lots of goals from crosses anyway, but we didn’t test their young keeper – he was making his debut at this level – and that’s disappointing.

The instructions weren’t followed, they do what they’re good at, but we didn’t do what we’re good at. We didn’t try and play, and we got into a battle – we’re not going to win many battles.

The midfield broke a few times and forced a play, or we were in good positions and just wouldn’t pull the trigger, which is disappointing. Their keeper had to make one save in the first half but we didn’t deserve a goal because we didn’t create the chances.

On the goal we conceaded
It’s a sloppy, horrible goal! We were on the break, lost the ball in their third, they countered, put a ball to the far post, which I thought we should have dealt with and we had two opportunities to clear it, but the lad’s hooked it back in and got a toe on it, and it’s just rolled over the line. So, yeah, really disappointing, especially with the timing, because we’d just had a decent spell before that, without really creating anything.

On a lack of creation
We huffed and puffed, but they sat in. They were working hard while we were trying to get wide, but the quality just wasn’t there. No quality in crosses, no quality from set plays, no quality in open play, no quality in the final third.

We can’t use the pitch as an excuse as you’ve got to put the ball in good areas. They played the pitch better than us.

On the frustration that we didn’t back up Tuesday’s result
I told the boys I was disappointed. On Tuesday, the first half was a poor performance. In the second half, we scored at the right times, but does that mask the cracks? Was it really a good performance? Then we come out today, and I’m just not impressed. I thought we lacked energy.

We ended up in a 4-2-4 formation. I felt sorry for the two lads in midfield – up and down, up and down. It’s a big pitch, and if you make it big defensively, you leave gaps, which is what disappointed me.

On looking forward

If you look at our results this season, too many draws. even this game looked like it had a draw written all over it.

We need to find a goal scorer. Redders has been really good, (15 goals), but he needs help. Joel’s been great, but we’re not getting goals from other areas. We need to share the goals around and to improve this team for next season, I need a 15-20 goal-a-season striker, that’s what I’ll be looking for.