Town Head Coach Luke Williams addressed members of the local media in the wake of his side’s 2-1 defeat to Bradford City at Valley Parade earlier this afternoon…
“The effort was there but unfortunately the know how is not and we only need to make the game a non-event for fifteen minutes,” he said.
“If you manage it correctly then the ball is probably only in play for seven minutes out of the fifteen and they needed to get the ball into the corner and stay there as long as they could.
“We needed to be more clever with our pass collection and slow everything down, but we were naive and then it was too big for us.
“The players were desperate to concede to not have to live with the fact that they’ve come away and won at Bradford.
“It is easier to say we got beat.
“I hope they learn from it but it is no good us hoping that the players will learn from it and we’re all suffering, the fans are suffering and we get relegated.
“We have to learn immediately.
“We came here and went 1-0 up with fifteen minutes to go and we’ve won the game. The game is over and there is no energy left for the other team and if we manage it correctly then there is not enough time for them to make too many big changes.
“We just handed it over to them.
“I told the players at half-time that we would take the lead and we did, but it was too big for some of the players to accept it.
“The effort was absolutely there and I don’t think there are any question marks over players putting their bodies on the line or running.”
And Williams explained his decision to replace Fankaty Dabo at half-time with Brad Barry.
“Fankaty had been booked and I took him off to make sure that we didn’t lose a player,” he continued.
“It looked like he was going to make one more rash tackle but he gave everything for the team and absolutely ran his socks off.
“I made that change and I thought we might be able to get some joy by defending the box with one extra player, so I put five across the back to look to break and we did that, but we can’t manage fifteen minutes of football.”
Finally, Williams once again stressed his determination to help guide Town to safety and away from the relegation zone.
“I don’t want the season to be over because if it finishes tomorrow we’re relegated, so no chance,” he added.
“I want the season to continue until we’re safe and if we could bolt on an extra 50 games at the end of the season if we needed to, then I would.
“I will never quit and I want this emotion to be over, but I certainly don’t want this season to be over.
“I’m not looking to hide from anything and it is a blessing to be involved in this sport.
“It is crushing when you feel you have worked so hard to get a victory away at a tough place and then to just hand it over is difficult to accept right now.”
