Town Head Coach Luke Williams spoke to members of the local press in the wake of his side’s 1-0 defeat to Walsall earlier today. Here are the key points from what he had to say…
ON THE RESULT:
“It is a blow.
“We are still in the same situation points wise that we were before kick-off and that is almost more disappointing because we could be sitting in a much healthier position now.
“We’ve applied maximum pressure to ourselves and now we probably need to win the remaining two games and that’s the reality.”
ON THE PERFORMANCE:
“I wanted the team to stay in the game for as long as possible and we probably started to be more attacking at the end of the game.
“We put John Goddard high up the pitch, we changed the full-back on his left foot playing on the right side with a very, very attacking left full-back but we still weren’t able to get the ball into the back of the net and we then conceded.
“I haven’t got too much trouble with the game plan because we stayed in the game for a long, long time and we don’t want to give ourselves a mountain to climb.
“We always want to be in the game and as people get tired and switch off, we should have the motivation to keep going but it wasn’t to be.
“I thought we broke quite well in the first-half but once we got to the 18-yard box we wasn’t able to be clinical.
“Nicky Ajose put three crosses in, Jon Obika had a shot blocked, Ben Gladwin looked a threat on the break and it was just that moment of quality that was missing.
“It is not always possible to go charging forward and hit the back of the net. There are times when players need to make a sensible decision and try and retain possession, otherwise it becomes basketball.
“When we had a chance to break we didn’t take it.”
ON WALSALL’S GOAL:
“There were tired legs, the ball is dragged wide and he (Joe Edwards) hits it across Lawrence (Vigouroux) and, in hindsight, Bradley (Barry) could maybe have done better.
“Everybody on the pitch was tired at that point and the boy had enough energy to strike it towards the far post and it found its way in.”
ON MISSED OPPORTUNITIES:
“It is a missed opportunity but Walsall didn’t play like they had nothing to play for - they were very professional.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’ve put huge pressure on our shoulders and we’re not able to play and relax.
“We haven’t got the luxury of being able to set the team up in a way that we’re very aggressive. We have to make sure we stay in the game because there have been so many games where we have gone aggressive and not won.
“Walsall played the game very professionally and didn’t give us anything at all.”
ON HAVING WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN THE FINAL TWO GAMES:
“We had back-to-back wins against Millwall and Fleetwood and that demonstrates the team’s ability to get back-to-back victories under pressure.
“They can do it but we’ve now given ourselves a mountain to climb and the clock is ticking against us.”
ON THE TOWN FAITHFUL:
“They were incredible today. They were brilliant and it sounded like we scored when we had a corner.
“I’m really grateful for that and I hope they come out in force for the next home game.”
