|
" We've just talked in the dressing-room about the performance, when we step off the pace of our game we look a less attractive team and a less effective team. The first-half was pretty abysmal in that respect, we started extremely slowly and never really got going at all. The second goal was a comedy of errors and epitomised the play a little bit unfortunately. The second-half was a pick up and a little bit better though, hopefully it will be the kick up the backside that we need because this is more like the Bristol Rovers away game that we are going to encounter next Saturday.
" Rather than the nicer games against Middlesbrough and Preston, where it doesn't quite matter in a sense as long as you do alright. We have come out second best against a team with a little bit more determination than us throughout the game. We know we have got to do better and if we come through next week with a better performance because of this then this will be worth it.
" They (Morecambe) are going to chase every ball here, and they are going to be doing that at Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury, and we want to be doing that ourselves when we get into the real stuff. You want your second last practice to be at that pace though, and we weren't at it. When we play well we play at a good pace, we showed little glimpses of it, bits and pieces of it. The goal was an exceptionally good bit of play from us but there were not enough of those and that is something that we have got to pick up on.
" We didn't win enough headers, our delivery, the touch players were a little bit out of touch. People like (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson, (Paul) Thirlwell and Simon Hackney, you know that they have got good touch on the ball but today it wasn't their day. We have had too many of them, every now and again you can get away with a couple but not with five or six which we have had today. It's something that has happened before and we want it to happen less and less, and we have just reminded the team of that. "
" He (Cleveland Taylor) has probably been the more consistent player today on both flanks. He has been effective and has delivered crosses, the first-half particularly they were coming from his side. We just thought that if we were going to make the changes then it is too easy to be predictable, we might need Cleveland out on the left. You see him coming in hitting a right foot shot, when he comes inside he has paced the ball out, out of his feet, which we have been trying to work at with him. So the young fella is learning and probably today he had more consistency than most on our side.
" Today, those guys, people like Danny (Carlton), people will read into all sorts, may wonder if this is the Bristol Rovers team for next Saturday that John Ward has picked out. Well Danny Carlton is telling me that it is probably not, he is saying to me that I had better think about him, and fair play to him, so he should.
" The final eleven is not in my mind, it can't be, I said that last week. There are certain elements of it that you think are OK or you'll have a little look at that. I think that looking at Michael Bridges, he needs more touch, more play, he needs more sharpness about his game. We'll take him up to Workington on Monday and see if he can pick it up there, he needs a bit more eleven v eleven which is fine.
" I understand and I know that, we are human beings, we can't be spot all on the time, but we have to keep working at it and we'll do that. I haven't got fixed ideas though about is he going to play or has he got to play, they don't have to play just because they have got a name or they played all the games last year. Positions are open and people are pushing me all the time, which is good. "
" We have been happy enough with the way that we have played, we can't let 45 minutes throw us all over the place. In terms of that is wrong or that is wrong when we have been shouting nicely about the team for the last two or three weeks. So you have got to just keep your calm, you have your good days and your not so good days. Today is a pretty poor day for us in terms of, particularly the first-half, but we have had a number of good days and we have got to work at getting more of those.
" As long as the mistakes don't hang over, but that is my job to make sure that it doesn't. I have said before that we don't get carried away, football has a habit of doing what it has done today and knocking you back down. We came here buoyant and everybody is happy, then suddenly you are going home tonight thinking that is not so good and are we sure about that. For myself and Greg (Abbott), and I think the coaching staff, it's just about keeping your nerve and keeping your belief in the players that you have got. Because I have got some good players who just haven't played quite so well today.
" No news on players coming in at the moment. I've popped up here quite quickly so I'm not sure on Evan Horwood, I know that he has just had an ice bag off Neil Dalton so that seems like a knock more than anything, so I don't really know at the moment. Peter Murphy has just got a bit of a dead leg, we took him out of the way, I think that he would have finished it had it been a league game, but some ice on a dead leg and he will be fine for Monday.
" It was our decision yesterday to take Grant Smith out of training with a slight thigh problem, he missed today unfortunately and he will probably miss Monday as well. He'll be fine through the week though, it's a pity but we need him to play and he would only have made that worse, so we were not prepared to do that. "