|
" It was more than a kick up the backside in the end. I thought that we were fine in the first-half, we created loads of chances, should have got a goal, happy enough, we were very happy at half-time. It was the just the fact that we didn't score and that we didn't take any advantage of our good play. You pat them on the back, you tell them more of the same, they (Tranmere) are going to come out and they will be a little bit quicker and they will have a bit more tempo to their game, and that they can't play as bad as that.
" In the first half they caused you problems, stand your ground, defend properly, keep doing much of the same, get it up to the front men, keep feeding the wide players who were terrific in the first-half. We fancied ourselves to get something out of the game and then it was that, which was a really poor second-half.
" Defensively we were just too lightweight, Ian Moore has bullied us, bullied our back two (Danny Livesey and Peter Murphy) and then (Chris) Shuker picks up the bits and pieces around him. All of a sudden, goals change games don't they and when they got the first goal they looked a good side after that, and in the first-half I didn't think that they did look a good side.
" We have come off getting done 4-1 and have got the run-around in the second-half. They are actually down there in the dressing-room feeling sorry for themselves but we judge anything on the game. This game is brutal, it is not forgiving and if you concede goals as easy as we did in the second-half then you will get your backsides tanned, and that is what happened in the second-half today. "
" Basically he (Ben Williams has got exposed today, and it is a coincidence that it is his first game back. He has not had, maybe the second one where he kicks out too quickly and we haven't got our shape there but apart from that I am not putting the blame on Ben. We defended poorly, Peter Murphy and Danny Livesey haven't played well, they haven't been tough enough today. They haven't dealt with Ian Moore and that is as big a problem as anything.
" I have told those two in there that and they are big enough to accept that. We pat people on the back, we criticise them, we praise them, we always tell the truth and that is what I thought. That then exposes your goalkeeper who has got four put past him and probably everyone will pick on Ben Williams, which I think is slightly unfair.
" Simon (Hackney) has been given permission, we have said that there has been a fee agreed and we asked Simon what he wanted to do. We didn't want to sell him, I don't want to sell him, he wants permission to talk so we have given him permission to talk and the decision will be in Simon's hands. So he will go down to Colchester and speak to those people and if he agrees something then we just move on from there.
" I don't want to sell Simon in the first place, he was asking the question, he wants to speak to another club so he is doing that, he has got what he asked for. I would absolutely welcome him back, Simon is a terrific player and we know what Simon can and can't do. So that situation we will find out as soon as Simon has spoken to their people and then comes back to us and let's us know what he is doing. "
" I am going to concentrate on grading this game down before anything else. On Friday night all we talked about was transfers and I have got a game to analyse and I have got a game to look forward to on Tuesday. I think that we have got to put all our focus and energy into that and that is my job to do that.
" All the other stuff goes on, you know that it does, but right at the minute we have got a big game coming on Tuesday. It is a game where we have to improve on our second-half performance otherwise we start slipping off the pace which is what we didn't want to do. We want to keep the improving like we have been doing and that is what I am thinking about just right now.
" Michael (Bridges) will possibly be involved on Tuesday but Jeff (Smith) I would very much doubt. So we have got Michael back and that is near enough a full quota to pick from, Jeff I think will be a little bit longer. You are always going to miss players with Michael's ability but that wasn't the problem today.
" In the first-half we caused them loads of problems, on another day Danny Graham could have had three or four goals quite easily. If he puts his chances away, which he does generally, and he has got his goal again, probably at the time where we were playing as badly as we had been in the game, then we might have been sitting here talking about a different story. "
" That is what happens though, goals change the complex of games and again, without blaming Danny, he is in the position, the keeper (Danny Coyne) has made a couple of saves, he has had a bit of fortune. We haven't managed to get the goal and then we defended poorly in the second-half, so would Michael Bridges have made a difference?, maybe, maybe not.
" You are in the game long enough to know that until you have won a game then you have never won a game. Until you have got your goals and you have killed people off then anything could happen in this game. At half-time you think that there is only one team that is going to win the game, or I did anyway, and so did the players.
" Then in the second-half at the end of it you would have thought that it has been a complete mauling. If you don't score your chances and you are sloppy and you concede at the other end then you are going to get punished and we did today.We need to play better than that on Tuesday but it is good that we have got a game coming up quickly because we can quickly put this one to bed.
" Hopefully it is a minor blip but the second-half performance was not acceptable. We have discussed that down there already, we have got to start thinking positive now haven't we. We have to put it to bed, we can break it down, we can talk about it a little bit on Monday but we have got to start quickly focusing on what is happening in front of us and not behind us, and that is what we will be doing. "