Neil McDonald On The Gillingham Defeat

Last updated : 28 October 2006 By Thetashkentterror

Neil McDonald
United boss Neil McDonald spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Saturday evening as he gave his opinion on the 2-0 reverse at the Priestfield Stadium. McDonald yet again talking about the need to play well for a full 90 minutes away from home :


" You can't deny Gillingham their win, if you get out-battled in the first-half and don't really compete, which was the most disappointing thing for me in the first-half – we didn't compete as much as we possibly can, then that's what happens. You have to earn the right to play, you can't just play when you want to, I asked for a better performance in the second-half which I think we got, then we got caught on the counter-attack. We didn't battle, that's first time really we've been out-muscled in the first-half this season.

" Paul (Thirlwell) had an injury, the only tactical change was (Derek) Holmes for (Jermaine) Beckford, then Ziggy (Zigor Aranalde) has got a bit of a sore groin as well, so really we didn't want to take any chances because their forward play was quite lively to be fair. He (Simon Grand) did alright, he's knocked some decent balls into the front line to turn them because I thought we played in front too much and we didn't turn them in the first-half either. Those were the two things that we tried to put right, we did that in the second-half but we were chasing the game again.

" They haven't had that many chances I wouldn't have thought, they were definitely the best team in the first-half though and they probably won the game because of that. We knew they were going to come out of the blocks and we had to stand up and be counted, unfortunately we left it a little bit short. It's just baffling how we can have a team that plays not so good away from home and yet are excellent at home, we've just got to try and put it together.

" We try and play off the front foot and we try and play with a positive attitude but at the same time we have to battle and we know that we are away from home. Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't, we have to try and find that balance a little bit closer than we have done in the past. He (Karl Hawley) will be fit next week, he's almost made it, another good week's training and then we'll see how he is for next week, he's one of our better players without a shadow of a doubt and we've missed him.

" I think the FA Cup draw is a good draw, it's a difficult draw, it's a long travel for us again but it's something that we're used to. It's away from home which is a little bit worrying I suppose for our fans because we haven't won away from home but we'll give it our best shot. It doesn't matter who you draw, although it's always nice to get a home draw, you are going to have to compete, battle away and outsmart the opposition and that's what we are going to have to do.

" We're eighth and the most disappointing thing is that we haven't picked up enough points away from home, if we had picked up more points away from home then we would have been further up the league. We'll stay positive though, you jump off one wave and jump onto the other, we have to jump on the other wave to make sure we are ready for next week, and we have been at home. "