On the defeat…
It’s the first time that I am not even angry. The mentality wasn’t right from the players tonight and I was sure that after winning on Saturday at Shrewsbury, something wouldn’t be right. Colchester came here and were full of desire. They played with players attacking the space and we knew they would come here, after a win, with as much desire as they showed after beating Hartlepool. I told the players to be alert but it was difficult to change their mentality.
At half-time…
I told the players that we could win. It was 0-0 but if we defended for our lives and built for the win, then we would have had a chance. Sometimes during the season we will prove we are average and that can happen, like tonight. We didn’t deliver the ball well and the strikers weren’t in the right place.
On the winning goal…
We must go out and we fully deserved to lose tonight. I told the goalkeeper in an earlier free-kick that the wall was one-yard out and that was a mistake. The ball went where the option was. It was a mistake.
On the week ahead…
We must build the desire and the mentality. We don’t play often bad like we did tonight. We must go home, look in the mirror and ask ‘how did I play today?’
On the team…
Gary Roberts and Nathan Thompson were injured so we were without those players tonight. We made changes to the side tonight and that had to happen. It is important that the players believe that now they must work hard, maybe work double. Now we must see the desire to become better footballers, not just against Aston Villa at the end of the month.
