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" I thought it was a harsh sending-off, it's a yellow card but you go and look on the video and both feet are off the floor, he gets the ball and catches the man as well. So it's pointless appealing in the current climate because it won't be successful but I thought that it was a harsh sending-off. The referee couldn't wait to get the red card out even before he's got there. JJ (Melligan) is not that type of player, he's gone in there, but with both feet off the floor I think in the current climate then I think that is deemed to be a sending-off.
" I don't want to use that as an excuse because it was nowhere near the reason why we lost the game, the game was lost before that incident in my opinion. I think that after that incident that with ten men we did OK-ish, but before it nothing really. Again, we talked about it, the passing, all the hard work that we put in last week at Milllwall without really passing the ball today has been thrown away. You take, I've just said to (Sean) Thornton and (Adam) Boyd in there, the reason that I have taken those two off is that they are our big boys in terms of passing.
" Thornton gets on the ball and passes it, Boyd is supposed to be in the hole and gets it to make us pass and if they are not passing in the team then we are going to suffer because that is what they are supposed to do. I don't think that they did it today as well as everybody else, but they are the big ones who are out there to help us to play and pass and move the ball.
" I don't think attitude is a reason for our performance, it was difficult conditions because it was windy but I just feel that we have been a passing team for a while now. Then in recent games we have not done that with any great purpose, you look at shots for, shots on target again today, it's not enough. I've just said to them that I've found it hard in the last two, even though we have won the last two games I find it hard to put together a sequence of videotape with six passes going on. "
" We had that little bit of 20 minutes against Swindon but we need a little bit more than that to win games. We were beaten by a better team and we were beaten 11 v 11, as I say, let's not use the JJ Melligan sending-off as an excuse. We were devoid of ideas and we didn't get going in any way, shape or form. Once they went 3-0 up against the ten men it was a case of damage limitation and it's certainly an afternoon to forget.
" Everyone that is available for Monday will consider themselves to have a chance of playing I think and rightly so. It wasn't good enough here today so we have to do something about it and bounce back against Cheltenham on Monday and that might well mean some changes. Play-offs now are looking unrealistic but it's 16 points required, you've got 21 points to play for and you can afford to drop 5 in my opinion. I don't think that is going to change but five points between now and the end of the season means we can only afford to lose one game and one game only.
" Jabo (Ibhere) came on and (Stephen) Purches at half-time and we put (Adam) Chambers back into where we know, he is probably our best midfield player when he's on song. Even though we've won games without him there I just think that we miss his energy. The reason for the Alton Thelwell substitution is that the game was dead and buried and to give Alton an hour today means that he will be available to play at Cheltenham on Monday and that's why Adam filled in at centre-half as well.
" It's disappointing because our passers of the ball, they might feel hard done by being taken off, Thornton and Boyd, but they are the passers of the ball. They're big-time players who are within this club and they've got to be the catalyst for us to pass the ball. If you're looking for little positives, we stuck with them in the last 40 minutes and prevented it from becoming a cricket score. It is only a small positive though and we've got to brush ourselves down before we go to Cheltenham on Monday. "