Town Head Coach Luke Williams gave his reflections to the local media in the wake of his side’s 3-1 penalty shootout success over Oxford United earlier this evening…
ON THE RESULT AND PERFORMANCE:
“I’m exhausted from the game and the penalties at the end – it was so tense.
“I’m pleased we won – it’s as simple as that.
“It is not a draw, we won.
“Breaking down ten men should be easier than breaking down a team of eleven but full credit to Oxford.
“I thought Raphael Rossi-Branco in particular was a real leader and he was so strong and he won so many headers and so many tackles.
“He drove the team forward.
“He was organising full-stop and you could hear him belting out the instructions.
“Over the last three seasons that I’ve been here, I think twice the team that has won the JPT has won promotion as well.
“It is a competition that can give you added confidence and of course the carrot to play at Wembley is huge.
“We would like to continue in this competition as long as possible.”
ON ALEX MACDONALD’S RED CARD FOR OXFORD:
“I’ve watched it back and it is a red card. We know ourselves that it happens in these games between the two clubs.
“Players are quite pumped and I think the boy just made the wrong decision and lost his composure for a moment.”
ON THE PENALTY SHOOTOUT:
“They were all very quick to put their hand up and take the responsibility, which is great when you are the coach or manager of a team.
“They were all there in a flash so full credit to them for that.”
ON WILL HENRY’S NIGHT TO REMEMBER:
“He was outstanding because it is pressure and he’s such a young man but he did fantastically well.
“He’s been in a similar situation already at his tender age and was able to handle the pressure.
“This is a very good squad that Oxford have put together and they’ve got some real pace and ability in the top end of the pitch that caused Will to make some saves.
“He handled everything fantastically well.”
ON JERMAINE HYLTON’S LOAN MOVE TO GUISELEY AFC:
“He would have played tonight but we felt that he really needed to go and get regular football, which he’s been struggling to get on the pitch for us.
“The formation at the moment doesn’t suit him as much and I’m very pleased to hear that he’s assisted a couple of goals tonight.
“He’s a tremendous talent and we’ll be keeping our eye on him to see how he’s getting on.”
ON INJURIES:
“Everyone that we spoke about earlier in the week are still on the road to recovery but we’re expecting people back in training next week.
“It is fantastic to have Michael Doughty back at the football club because he’s a big character and he’s extremely popular here.
“We can’t wait to see him back on the training pitch.”
