Town Head Coach Luke Williams addressed the local media in the wake of his side’s 0-0 draw with Oldham Athletic at The County Ground earlier. Here are the key points from what he had to say…
ON THE RESULT AND PERFORMANCE:
“Again, it was a similar story and we as a team need to get the ball over the line. I always try to make clear that it is not about Jon Obika, Luke Norris or Nicky Ajose - it is about every single player.
“Somebody supplying the pass needs to make sure it is slightly better, if someone is supplying the final attempt they can make it slightly better and a pass could be earlier or a fraction quicker – there’s so many things.
“We created more chances today than we have done recently and I don’t think we gave away anything too glaringly obvious.
“Lawrence Vigouroux had a few bits to do that you would expect him to do and again we blanked and didn’t score.
“At half-time we should be ahead and the danger is that if you’re not then the opposition are hanging on and they feel like it is their day to not concede.
“For us you hope that you haven’t missed the boat and for a period at the beginning of the second-half it looked as though that might have been the case, but I felt we came strong again.
“Oldham were very clever, they tried to slow the game down, but we managed to get some flow again and managed to create more chances but we still couldn’t score.
“When we’re in this situation people do hesitate or overthink or try too hard and we need to be able to relax even though there is pressure and tension around the place.”
ON ROHAN INCE’S FINE PERFORMANCE:
“I thought he was outstanding and I appreciate the fans giving me some stick when he came off because that is a compliment to Rohan.
“I felt like he was tired, he hasn’t trained fully because of the court case and he started to look tired.
“I thought the booking was coming and when it did I felt like there could be one clumsy challenge that leads to him being sent-off, and I don’t think we want to go into a game without him as an option.
“I thought his performance was excellent and I can understand the frustrations of the fans.
“I’m wrong if I don’t take him off and then he gets sent-off and I’m wrong if I do take him off and everyone thought he was playing so well, so I get that.
“Rohan understood the decision and why it was made and I thought he was excellent.”
ON JON OBIKA’S ROLE:
“He was slightly withdrawn and I think Jon is very, very capable of receiving the ball in traffic, which is one of the most difficult areas of the pitch in the middle and in the thick of it.
“I thought he did it fantastically well and he chose the right time to set the ball back to midfield and the right time to try and spin somebody.
“He looked as likely to score from picking the ball up midway in the opposition’s half as he did inside their box, so I personally felt that worked well.
“Jon understood the role and delivered a good performance.”
ON LEAVING OUT FANKATY DABO:
“He had a difficult game (against Northampton) and often with young players that will happen, but that doesn’t mean that Fankaty has lost any quality as a player or he’s not got a future with us - of course it doesn’t.
“But when a player has a difficult game and has been in the thick of it since he’s arrived – he’s played all of the games - I think it made sense to change it and to be able to bring a different player into the line-up.”
ON BEING ENCOURAGED BY THE PERFORMANCE:
“It does give me optimism and I think if we can create that many chances against teams week in and week out and we’re able to keep them out the back of our net, then we have a fighting chance for sure.
“If we’re not creating any chances but we’re leaking dozens then I’m really concerned and you really feel like there’s a lot of work to do.
“I really felt like that performance doesn’t leave us scratching our heads, we know the reality of what happened was that we created chances but we weren’t clinical enough, we weren’t clean enough and we were maybe too tense when it came to the final action.
“The pressure is building and building but it is our job to deal with that.”
