Simmo Quotes After The Macclesfield Game

Last updated : 08 March 2006 By Thetashkentterror

Simmo speaks
United manager Paul Simpson spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Tuesday evening as he gave his thoughts on the tough two leg aggregate victory over the Silkmen in the LDV Vans Northern Area Final :


" It’s a wonderful night for everybody connected with the club, we set off at the start of the season with the intention of getting to Cardiff and really took this competition seriously from the first round. Tonight we’ve made it hard for ourselves, I’m not going to lie, we made it very difficult with the way we started the game but there are some tired and very, very happy players in there at the moment. We deserve to be going to Cardiff and it's something we can really look forward to now.

" We got a lift from Kieren Westwood’s double save to start with and then we had to do something about the way we were playing. We had to change it, we moved Adam Murray out, brought Lummy (Chris Lumsdon) in and went to four across midfield because it just wasn’t working. Simon Hackney felt more comfortable doing it, the two midfielders were able to track (Kevin) McIntyre and (Danny) Whitaker better and all-in we looked a better and stronger side.

" I think we’ve created chance after chance, we’ve caused problems, yes Keiren has had to be called into it to do his job but all-in-all it’s a massive team effort. Grandy (Simon Grand) has come on and done a great job and I’m delighted he’s got the winner and Brendan McGill has come on and played a part in the winning goal. Everybody’s had to do it, Glenn Murray has worked his socks off and run himself into the ground and that’s what we’ve got to do between now and the end of the season.

" I said before this that we’ve got eleven big league games, one, and hopefully two, LDV games, now we’ve got that second LDV game and we can all look forward to it. Karl Hawley’s goal didn’t change my team-talk at all to be honest with you because they were still going to get a rollocking and that’s exactly the way it went. It gave us a lifeline though, I went in at half-time and said : ‘we are the luckiest men alive because we have somebody like Karl Hawley who can go and get a goal out of nothing, we were lucky that we had Keiren Westwood to pull off those two saves.’ I said that we had to then raise our game and that was what we did in the second-half.

" I thought Simon Hackney caused all sorts of problems until he tired and his legs were going on him but then Brendan (McGill) came in and did a good job for us. On the field they weren’t all fully aware of the away goals rule, on the bench though we were, we knew exactly what the situation was. Chris Lumsdon didn’t have a clue about it and a few of the others didn’t but it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter how it happened, that is something I can address tomorrow and is something that we’ll talk about when we get back in again tomorrow. "



" The big thing is that it didn’t matter how it happened, we just wanted to get to Cardiff, it’s a cup tie and we knew it had to be decided tonight. I was confident that we would score a goal and then I always had something in my mind that we could then go and get another because we were being so positive.

" The supporters are absolutely different class, I’m not trying to be disrespectful but we put Macclesfield’s supporters to shame tonight. With the numbers that we have had turn up for this night on a freezing cold night, it’s poured down all the way down here, it’s a really difficult place to get to and I think our supporters have put them to shame. It isn’t the first time either this season that we’ve done it, the only thing their supporters behind the dugout can do is swear and abuse me and the rest of the men on the bench. It’s embarrassing, they are not even backing their side, our supporters have made a noise right through, they will enjoy this journey home and the M6 is going to be a very, very good place to be tonight.

" At 2-0 down they were still singing and shouting but they were also giving me a bit of grief, shouting at me to sort it out. We were trying to sort it out, we were trying to work out why we started the game like that but that happens. We’ve gone and dealt with it though and we’ve risen to the challenge after that, we’ve won it and we’re all going to Cardiff, and what a wonderful day out we are going to have.

" There are going to be some tired legs but we knew there were going to be, we knew that even it if went to 90 minutes they were going to be tired. We knew that the whole squad was going to be called into play, I had it in my mind that there would be other players coming in, Danny Livesey is having stitches in his head at the moment. Peter Murphy has got a muscle strain in his lower back and we need to see how that is. Derek Holmes is very tired, Simon Hackney is very tired but we’ve Bridgey (Michael Bridges) who can come in, we’ve got Kevin Gray who can come in, we’ve got Simon Grand who won’t want to drop out. Mark Rivers is getting fitter and Brendan (McGill) has enjoyed it tonight so we’ve got players who can come in and do a job so we’ll all look forward to Northampton.

" It’s another massive game for us and the fact that we’ve won tonight will give everybody a huge lift and hopefully we can take that into the next game as well. I’m fit as well, I went for a run this morning and got abused off a few lorry drivers as I was running down the main road but it may be a bit too early for me. If I’m needed though then I can make up the numbers on the bench. "