|
" We've lost 1-0 because we're not clean enough or clinical enough at the front end of the pitch because we've been there a lot of the times all night. Even the Cheltenham goal we were attacking and it was a little bit against the run of play. We've got in the last 30 yards numerous times, many times, but our crossing or shooting or finishing has just let us down a little bit. As well as some exceptionally good defending by Cheltenham who stood their ground.
" The answer is to keep playing like that because it won't happen all the time. It's important that, I've just said to the players, it's important that you keep your dignity and desire which we have shown tonight without question. The quality is there, I know it is there because we have produced it a number of times this season. Tonight it was one of those nights that it wasn't there, and we go home, a long way home, with nothing to show for a major effort.
" I've still got a good team here, Cheltenham know they have beaten a good team tonight and they've had to be a good team themselves and work hard at their game to make sure that they did win it. They got a break in the box which (Steven) Gillespie is bright, he is always going to hit targets and with our breaks we didn't hit targets, and that's the difference.
" It's a bit harsh on Danny Carlton to say that he can't buy a goal as he has only had 15 minutes to try to do that so I'll dismiss that one. Big Danny Graham is working his socks off to try to do something, there is no lack of endeavour there, he is finding it hard to get himself in the chances. I think in the last game he had five efforts on goal, he has hit the bar a couple of times and it is just not happening for him, as it didn't happen for any of us tonight.
" We've got to persevere the way that he is doing, if he needs a breather I'll think about that, if he needs to stay and keep working then I'll think about that too. We have to support our players though and I'll certainly do that with people like Danny. There is a chance on the Cleveland Taylor deal, I'm still working at it. "
" He (Scott Dobie) came on and we made sure that he had 30-35 minutes rather than a shorter time. He's got pace, we'll get him more match-fit as we go along but there is a good player there which I already knew. I know he is a favourite with supporters, we saw that tonight, but we've got a good footballer more to the point and he is going to be a threat when we get him really strong.
" It was the formation for tonight with him alongside Joe Garner because we needed to do something and that's my job on the bench really. I can't look ahead to Oldham as I hope you'd appreciate but certainly we looked at him wide and we looked at him down the middle. It needed something slightly different to switch around, to see if we could get his pace at the top end of the pitch, but it didn't happen. Those things are open to me to consider but I don't think you'd expect me to make that announcement now.
" If I worry about our away form then I make the wrong decisions so I concern myself rather than that. You've just said to me about how on earth didn't we win that as we played well enough to do it. Then you question the away form, the form is actually very good, the goalscoring tonight wasn't there. I've just said to the boys that if they produce that at Oldham on Tuesday night, which is good because we haven't got to wait until next Saturday, then there is a good chance we can win it.
" We are working hard to improve that but we've showed tonight that there is enough in this side to win games away from home. It's not through lack of effort, organisation or determination so we have to keep those things going and that's my job and the job of my staff to make sure that the players do that.
" To compare it with other games is strange in way but we have to just keep going. There has to be the belief in what we are doing, I'm the manager of a good side, I've left a good football club here at Cheltenham. I've gone into a football club that it is working at the top six and have got a really good chance of achieving that.
" If it plays the way that it has done tonight then we'll continue to work hard at trying to be in the top six. If we'd won 2-1 then you'd have been crowing and saying how wonderful it was but the same performance would have been put in. What we haven't done is been clinical and sharp enough in the penalty box and that's where we've got to improve. "