That was fun to watch, Andy. What was it like to coach?
It was a great experience on my 36th birthday. Obviously, you want to come away with the win but I think the lads performed really professionally and gave their all, but we just came up a bit short to be honest.
There were a lot of chances, which you don’t particularly want to allow to happen in front of your goal. Too many crosses were coming in, too many shots on target. Hopefully, we can be better in the coming weeks.
We’re still building, we’re still a new group and we’re still trying to get a couple of players in, so once we get a settled side, hopefully that won’t happen and we can move forward and performances will improve.
The game as a whole, it was a slow start, the first half was a little cagey, but in the second half you really came out and scored a lovely goal through Ryan Loft.
Great goal. Lofty worked really hard today. There are still areas of his game that he needs to improve on and we’re working in training for him to do that, but his attitude and dedication up there, the lads will be very thankful for that.
He works tirelessly on the frontline. You only have to feel him when he comes off, the sweat is dripping off him.
He’s got a goal there as well so that’s two in two for him, so that will give him a massive confidence boost.
Just on Jerry Lawrence, it was a wonderful pass for him. I thought in the first half, he didn’t back himself the way he does in training with us. He didn’t seem as confident, but we had a little word with him at half time and second half he came out and acquitted himself wonderfully well.
He’s a young boy and somebody we’ve got to improve every single day. He’ll be fine, Jerry. He’s got a lot of ability and he’s really impressed the coaching staff since he’s been in.
He looked good in that second half and you had quite a few experienced heads around him. Perhaps more than some might have expected tonight. How important is that in trying to integrate these youngsters?
What we try to do is, especially when bedding the young boys in, is we’ll always put an experienced one next to them. It just gives that level of care and communication that those boys will feel on the pitch.
Sometimes if you put just a young side out, there is no-one with that experience. They might make certain mistakes if they would have been there, so the likes of Glenn Whelan and Paul Coutts and Jordy Rossiter, they help those boys along.
Again, it’s a squad game and the team spirit is fantastic in the camp.
The results will come and the settled side will happen after Thursday and then we can really get to work, so exciting times ahead. A big game on Saturday against Morecambe and an opportunity to get to 10 points, which will be a really solid start.
It was nice to see Trevor Clarke out there and I thought he did well after it looked like he didn’t have much of a future at the club.
Trevor did excellently tonight. He’s someone who unfortunately may not be here, but a fantastic attitude, did ever so well tonight and deserves to play, but that might not be with us.
That’s something in the ether, really, but Trev did great to show how good of a professional he is and we just need to wait and see what happens with that one.
It’s not your area of expertise, you’re coaching, but do you know of anything happening between now and Thursday. Are you hopeful of getting a body or two through the door?
Absolutely nothing to do with me, lads. My job is to coach the players and I don’t really have anything to do with that.
On the result tonight, the lads go away a bit disappointed after the 1-1 and they were full of confidence they could win or win on penalties, which breeds confidence as well, but in terms of the transfers I’ve got no answers for you.
That’s fair enough, but it was nice to get some minutes into Luke McCormick in his first match back for the club. A lot of players have got minutes in their legs, which will help, if not this weekend then sometime soon.
All the games that are coming at the moment are an extension of our pre-season. We’re still working through and trying to find our best side.
Luke McCormick when he came on today was superb. You can see straight away what he’s going to give us. He gives us legs, that energy, that drive.
He’s going to be a really important player for us in the coming months, but not only months, we’ve signed him for three years and he’s a young boy as well. My god, what a player he is going to be when he gets to 26 or 27.
Really excited about Luke and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of him in the coming weeks.
Andy, you say transfers are not your area of expertise, but one area of expertise for you is strikers. Ryan Loft, two clinical finishes in two games. Obviously, you must be happy with the finishing, but you said there are things you want to see him improve. What are those things? Is it tidying the hold-up play or something else?
Exactly what you say there. He’s got to tidy up his build-up.
The thing is, Lofty is tall and those tall ones don’t come into play until they’re about 27, really. You only have to look at Cole Stockton at the moment. Cole Stockton is coming through at Morecambe and I’m assuming he’s going to leave, or he’s attempting to leave.
Everyone wants him now. I played with Cole when he was younger and he wasn’t the player he is now. Those big boys just take a bit of time.
With Lofty, he’s done great and he’s come back in pre-season really fit with the bit between his teeth. You can see his hard work is paying off now with two goals in two games and he’s actually looked a lot more dangerous than he did last season.
Lofty’s done great. It’s a massive present for us, really, because he’s gone away at the end of last season and thought ‘How am I going to get in this side?’ but he hasn’t, he’s had a fantastic attitude, he’s worked hard over the summer and he’s come back and is getting the rewards now.
We’ve got to be patient with him and we will be better. We’re still building but we’re not the finished article yet.
Does it kind of sum up where the team is at the minute that you finish that game with Glenn Whelan and Jordan Rossiter in the back three? You’re not quite where you want to be in terms of the squad and it’s hard to read too much into things at the moment.
It is. We’re all looking at football at the moment and not many signings are happening in football. An awful lot of squads aren’t filled yet and the Premier League aren’t letting their boys out because they’ve had an extended pre-season and the transfer window has been open longer and later, so they’re waiting to sign players and that cascades down.
The Championship boys are all there with their caps in hand and we’re waiting for the next lot to come out. Things will start moving pretty quickly, I’m assuming. There are only 48 hours left and hopefully, we’ll have some news for you.
Glenn was so good though, wasn’t he? That was a game of basketball at times and I thought he was only in trouble once in the first half when Ryan Hardie got ahead of him, but other than that he tracked every run and he intercepted so many things to prevent chances for them.
Whelo’s the standard-bearer of our football club. He drives standards in training, he demands everyone perform at the level he performs at.
If you say to him he did well tonight, he might not even thank you. That’s just what he expects from himself. He’s brilliant and he’s someone you learn from not only as a coach, but someone you can take great confidence from knowing when you step him out onto the pitch, as he has in recent weeks even though he’s a coach, you’ll get a level of performance which will actually drive others on to do better as well.
It’s not like missing a penalty in an FA Cup game where it decides a result, it’s for a bonus point, but I guess there is a bit of a pick-up job for Antony and particularly Harvey Greenslade missing his penalty? It was brave of him to step up and take it.
Yeah, it was, but with those young boys, you have to see what type of character they’ve got. He’s stepped up, taken it and missed it, but he’s very brave to take it in the first place.
Clearly, he’s missed, but the lads will all rally around him. We’ve got an unbelievable team spirit here and that’s not something we’re going to hold a grudge against. It’s just something he’ll have to improve on.
It’s probably the first time he’s taken a penalty in a senior game. He’s missed, fine. Keeper made a save, he hasn’t ballooned it over.
Antony on the other side, we all know how good Antony is on penalties. More of them will go in than not.
Just a building block. Another building block. We need to be better and we know that and we will be better, and Thursday going will settle the whole squad down.
Finally, the manager was absent tonight. Is he poorly?
Yeah, he’s just not well. He’ll be back in tomorrow or Thursday, it’s just a 24-hour bug thing and you’ve got to be careful and not stay around the lads because you don’t want them getting ill will big games coming up.
Nothing untoward, he’s just not feeling too well at the moment.
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