Simmo's Reaction To The Rushden Match

Last updated : 19 February 2006 By Thetashkentterror
Simmo speaks
United player-manager Paul Simpson spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Saturday evening as he gave his thoughts on the emphatic home victory over the Diamonds of Northamptonshire. It was an excellent performance from the Blues that saw them go back to the top of the table with Simon Hackney bagging a brace for his first goals in league football :


" I’m very satisfied, straight from the first whistle we got off to a great start. We got a throw-in in the first few seconds, we then got a corner, and a corner that we’re pleased that the lads have got themselves into the right areas, we get off to a hell of a start and score within the first minute.

" Then after that we’ve really gone for the throat and, like I said after Tuesday night’s game, I wanted us to go and be more positive on Tuesday and we took our foot off. Today though we didn’t and although it was a difficult game to play in, I have to say, because, I’m not blaming anybody but the pitch doesn’t do us any favours at all but we were delighted to get the win.

" It’s a problem for Kevin Gray because it’s a bad tackle from the lad I’ve got to say that. The linesman has given it but the referee didn’t even speak to him, it was late after the ball and he’s done him on his heel, I think he’s had about five or six stitches into a hole in his heel. I think he’s going to be struggling for Tuesday but hopefully he’ll be OK for next weekend. "



" We want as many options as we can. The thing that we’ve tried to work at in assembling a squad here is that we’ve got a lot of options. Today we’ve shown that the lads can come in and Mark Rivers has come in for Bridgey (Michael Bridges) and Danny Livesey has had to come on for Kevin Gray. So the players who’ve come on have done very well, Simon Hackney you look at and he’s got two fantastic goals and hopefully the first of many for him.

" I don’t know what Chris Billy’s problem was exactly but he was being sick at half-time, I don’t know whether it was a bug or just a bit of something that he has eaten. I just felt it was something that wasn’t worth taking the chance on, he was sick through the whole of half-time so we decided to change it and as I told Chris at the end of the game - he’s changed the game for us.

" I did mention in my team-talk to the players before the game that the table didn’t look very attractive today being out of those automatic promotion places and we had to make sure we did everything we could to get back up. We also knew, and the other thing I said, that the table will keep going one way and another but if we keep getting our job right we’ll keep getting ourselves into good positions. I believe we have gone top today, I think Wycombe have drawn somebody said so that’s pleasing and we’ve got to make sure that we go and do it right in the next one.

" The goal difference will be vital come the end of the season. The way the league is at the moment it is so tight that if it’s going to go to goal difference we’ve got to keep banging those goals in. Today we did with some tremendous finishing, Karl’s (Hawley) were great goals and Simon Hackney took his two very, very well, he was like a seasoned striker the way he stuck those away. As I said, hopefully that is the first of many for him, he’s found it hard to get that first one and hopefully he’ll move on. "



" Karl has now got 21 goals this season so hopefully he can go on and push himself and go for 25 or maybe even 30 and be greedy about it. He was unselfish as well, it was great play, the first one for Simon he’s checked and turned and I’m thinking he’s just going to try and let one go to get his hat-trick but he’s picked Simon out, and good play again for the second.

" So, all-in-all, I think it was a really good team performance, we accept that they are down there and they are low on confidence but we’ve come unstuck in games like that in the past and today we were very professional about the way we did it. There is no point thinking about anything else, we’ve come up against Rushden today who are scrapping for their lives but we’ve knocked the stuffing out of them after however many seconds that first goal has gone in. Then we’ve kept going which has given them no lift whatsoever.

" I’m quite happy for Tuesday to be an LDV final and not a league game, I would love to go to Cardiff and take Carlisle United there. We’ve put ourselves into a good position and it would have been easy to say that we’re out of the LDV and we can concentrate on the league. You say them things when you have to though because you are out of the competition, we’re in there because we deserve to be. We were very, very heavily beaten by Macclesfield a couple of weeks ago and I think we owe them one, and Tuesday night is our first opportunity to do something about it.

" I don’t think Tuesday night was a game where we had anything to prove, I think the performance on Tuesday was right. I think after the Macclesfield game we had something to prove to ourselves and to the supporters but on Tuesday night I thought that the performance was right. We were just unfortunate that we’d didn’t quite have the quality to finish it off, the crowd realised that the effort was there on Tuesday and we created the opportunities. We had 40 crosses went in the box on Tuesday night against Shrewsbury and didn’t win the game. I said during the week that today we might not get 40 crosses but if we get into the right areas and keep producing efforts on goal then we’ll score and someone will take a drubbing. Unfortunately for Rushden it was them today. "