Town Head Coach Luke Williams addressed members of the local press in the wake of his side’s 1-0 victory away at Fleetwood earlier this afternoon. Here are the key points from what he had to say…
ON THE RESULT AND PERFORMANCE:
“If we’ve learnt a lesson from Bradford and that has got us over the line today, then I’m very pleased and I think it will be something that will stay with the players for the rest of their careers.
“We planned for this, it was cagey in the beginning and we had no width which is something I really don’t like.
“It is needs must and I need to be dynamic and it is fantastic if you win, but it is awful if you lose because you can look like you didn’t try to win.
“It is a balancing act but if we set the team up in this way then we expected a cagey first-half and we felt at half-time that the game plan was executed well.
“Then it was a case of us needing to do that little bit extra to get the goal.
“I felt that the longer the game went on then the more the game would open up, as many games often do.
“Fleetwood needed to keep up with the pack and they potentially got nervous the longer the game went on at 0-0.
“I think 0-0 for us, whilst it wouldn’t have been the ideal result, it would not have been the end of the world looking at the fixtures coming up so I felt our mentality would be more attacking than theirs the longer the game went on.”
ON NICKY AJOSE’S GOAL:
“We don’t have to talk about Nicky because if you give him space to run into and a goal to shoot at, he selects the right finish and he appears to be calmer and more at home inside the box to make one big decision than he often is in the middle of the pitch.
“That’s what makes Nicky very, very special because inside the box he makes that finish.
“It is a good build-up, the pass is weighted perfectly and Nicky gets away and makes the perfect contact.”
ON SEEING OUT THE GAME:
“The desire from the players to put their bodies on the line and to keep running, to press people and to make tackles was brilliant.
“When I see young Fankaty Dabo almost coming to a standstill to bring the game in to control and to slow it down, and when I see Charlie Colkett shielding the ball in the corner and trying to run the clock down is fantastic.
“The players are learning how to manage these very tense situations at the end of the game.”
ON BEING WITHIN A WIN AWAY FROM SAFETY:
“It matters a lot and the players will now feel that if they do their job properly next weekend then we have a great chance of being able to get above that line.
“It can only do us good.
“If we keep winning 1-0 and we have learnt our lessons, even as late as it is in the day, then it means that something positive can come out of the season and we can build on top of that and players have picked up some valuable experiences.”
ON FLEETWOOD:
“They are really very difficult to play against because they are very, very clearly well-drilled and everybody knows that Uwe Rosler is an outstanding manager.
“The pitch is tight and they understand how to use that very, very well to their advantage.”
ON BEN GLADWIN’S IMPACT:
“First and foremost, I thought that John Goddard did an outstanding job and he caused real problems in the first-half where there were moments where we could try to break into the box.
“John came very close on a couple of occasions and all the best attacking actions came from his side.
“He ran himself into the ground and when you have the quality of a player like Ben Gladwin to replace a player like John, then it is absolutely a dream.”
ON BRAD BARRY’S EXCLUSION:
“Brad made a block tackle and the top of his foot is bruised.
“It is nothing too serious but once he puts the boot on and starts to kick the ball around in the warm-up, it was too difficult and too painful so we brought the extra player in the squad to cover ourselves.
“Hopefully he’ll be fit for next week because you need people like Bradley now who you know are going to give you everything on the pitch.
“He was kicking every ball behind me on the bench and we need characters like that with us.”
