Town First-Team Coach Ross Embleton reacted to his Development side’s 3-1 defeat to AFC Wimbledon on Monday evening…
ON THE RESULT AND PERFORMANCE:
“We said to the boys both before and after the game that although we look at these games and there is more in them in terms of what happens with the result, we need to prioritise trying to perform to win games as well.
“The most disappointing thing about the evening was the fact that we gave away some really sloppy goals at really key times, which is a big part of the concentration of the boys and that is what you get when you’ve got a group of young players all playing together.
“There are key periods where they maybe switch off or they are not totally prepared and mistakes happen and it leads to goals against, so that was the most disappointing thing for us on the night.
“But the most pleasing thing for myself was that it was a much, much better performance than the previous two games.
“The team is always changing and it is never consistent but, at the same time, we want to make sure we put in some good performances so collectively that was a real positive.
“There was then a number of individual performances on top of that which were really pleasing.”
ON JAMES BROPHY:
“James had a disappointing first-half and I’m sure by his own admission he would hold his hands up and say that he wasn’t at his best, but he has missed training and missed a couple of games so it took him a bit of time to get back into it.
“But I thought he was unplayable in the second-half. He was picked out by a number of different people at the game and he was a real threat all the way through the second-half and provided a good assist for Jordan Stewart.
“It was a real positive for James.
“I thought Bradley Barry was really mature in the way that he supported the young players and played his part in the team without being as standout as James as an individual.
“Bradley gave a lot of other positives to the group.”
ON JORDAN STEWART’S GOAL:
“Jordan Stewart has shown a fantastic attitude this season and that has been commented on a lot.
“We know that when we put him in a game like that he’s not going to turn up and show a lack of effort, so he was very up and at you and gave everything he had for the hour he was on the pitch.
“Perhaps in the first-half he was involved in the game in areas of the pitch he doesn’t really want to be in, he wants to be in and around the box but he got more opportunity to get into the box in the second-half because James Brophy was such a threat.
“He got a nice goal to finish off the evening.”