Town Head Coach Luke Williams addressed members of the local press in the wake of his side’s 0-0 draw with AFC Wimbledon earlier today. Here are the key points from what he had to say…
ON THE RESULT AND PERFORMANCE:
“We didn’t create enough and the bits we did create we didn’t manage to score - it was as simple as that.
“We played in a similar way to the way we have played in the last four games to allow us to be more defensive rather than to be more attacking and leave ourselves wide open at the back.
“It is great if you score but it is much more difficult to create things in that manner, and then of course at the end when we start to put more people forward and we are more aggressive, then we leave a one-on-one and we have to rely on Lawrence (Vigouroux) to get us out of trouble.
“It is the gamble we take because we are not able to put a lot of players forward and still be secure at the back.”
ON CHANGES MADE DURING THE GAME:
“We made the first change to freshen up on the hour mark to see if a change in personnel would be enough to give us a boost.
“Then, with twenty minutes to play, we changed the formation, we changed the system and we attacked much more through the full-backs and asked a lot of Rohan Ince, Dion Conroy and Raphael Rossi-Branco to cover the back once we go forward.
“It is always a balancing act and you need to try and make the right move at the right time.”
ON TAKING THE POSITIVES FROM THE DRAW:
“We were one strike away from two more incredibly valuable points but we should look at the positive, which is that we’ve not lost in four games, we’ve conceded one goal in four games and we should be feeling more confident about ourselves.
“We’ve got every chance of going to win two or three games now and we have to look at the positives as well.
“We now need to add a few more goals to the mix and all of a sudden we start to feel very, very good about ourselves and start to believe in ourselves more and more.
“We have to make sure that we have the balance correct and if we go too aggressive from the beginning and leave ourselves too open, then we can leave ourselves with a mountain to climb.
“We try to manage the game and strike at the right moment. It is hard for the team to look supremely confident when they are playing under so much pressure.”
ON NATHAN THOMPSON’S INJURY:
“Nathan had an injection in his heel and we expected it to settle down but it didn’t settle down in the time we thought that it would, so he was in serious discomfort and wasn’t able to feature.
“We’re hoping that the injection that he’s had takes effect and we can see him back in the team.
“We managed well without him but you’re going to miss Nathan Thompson because he’s outstanding and if he was in any team in this division then they would miss him if he wasn’t on the pitch.
“He’s a very, very good player, he’s a strong person to have and he’s a huge character for us and very important, but we managed very well and I thought Bradley Barry did very well.”
