Joey, after the highs of Saturday, how do you assess your side’s performance tonight?
A little bit flat. We only made one change to the group and there is nothing in the cup tie. The referee... I’m not sure what constitutes handball these days. The lad doesn’t know much about it but clearly the use of the arm gains an advantage.
We’ve still got to defend better at that point, so we’re disappointed. We’ve got to create more and trouble their goalkeeper a bit more, but the priority for us is the league.
We had to pick that group tonight because the alternative is a load of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds, which wouldn’t be fair on the competition.
Back to the bread and butter on Saturday and we’ll have to be much better than that.
In my time I’ve known you, you don’t say ‘It’s one of those nights’ but with the amount of attacking players you had on are you bemused by the lack of chances your side created tonight?
Yeah, I thought we were a bit wasteful considering how offensive they were in their defensive positioning. I think we were guilty of not using the ball as wisely as we could and if you don’t do that and the game is still 0-0 and you leave yourself open.
Belly, through his own mistake in the first half, had to make a good save, but you’re expecting the referee in the middle of the park (to intervene) when there is a massive advantage for the use of the arm.
But look, for us, we’re disappointed to go out tonight. I’m gutted for the travelling fans who’ve turned up to support us. I’ve tried to respect the competition the best we could by picking the only team we’ve got, never mind the strongest team we’ve got.
The reality of it is we’ve got to dust ourselves down and pick ourselves up for three tough league games now.
You made a point of going to the away end and thanking the supporters.
They were superb. They turned up tonight not knowing if we were going to make a host of changes and I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
The lads need a bit of extra running in their legs. It will help us down the track in terms of the league campaign.
We want to progress and win every game of football, but for us the priority is Oxford in the league on Saturday.
It was only Alfie Kilgour’s second start of 2022. How did he perform tonight and where is he in your thinking longer term?
We picked up an injury to Gibbo from the game on Saturday, so he’s come in tonight and you could see near the end of the game he was a little bit tired. He had a couple of knocks and niggles in pre-season so it disrupted his pre-season campaign.
I think the 90 minutes will benefit him. We’ve got a really small squad at the minute so everybody will be required and needed.
Will James Gibbons be ready for Saturday?
I don’t think so, no.
What’s the issue?
We’re not sure yet. We’re waiting on a scan but it’s looking certainly like it’s going to be longer than a week or two.
Paul Coutts will be available on Saturday?
Yeah, that’s the last of his suspension there so we will get a look at Couttsy for the first time this year. It will be nice to have him out there, his experience, his leadership.
We’re in a moment where one of the coaches has got to come on for Sam. We had to do it on Saturday and it was a bit easier because they were down to 10 but today we’ve got to protect Sam to make sure he’s fully fit for the league campaign and that 60 minutes will do him the world of good as well.
You want to add to your squad. Anything closer for Saturday?
Yeah, I’m hoping to get something done this week, but I still think I’m six or seven away and tonight shows that. If you had those bodies in, you could probably rotate a bit and take the steam out of the starting lads after the weekend’s game.
At this moment in time, we don’t have the luxury and we’re working hard to change that.
Joey, the style of play Crawley tried to execute in that game is not unlike how a lot of teams in League One are going to play, certainly at the top level. Can you learn lessons from that? You had mixed success with the press. Sometimes it gave you great opportunities, others they were able to play through and get forward.
For us, we’re disappointed with the level of performance. There were times the press was coordinated and it led to some opportunities, but I don’t think we were good enough with those opportunities, whether it was the final pass or the final bit of control.
The lads put some good balls in and the strikers have got to be disappointed, especially the lads who haven’t got off the mark as yet because when you play League Two opposition in the cup, you want to get that monkey off your back and get your first goal.
There was a bit of huffing and puffing in there and there were certainly a couple of half-decent balls and we weren’t alive to those.
It’s an area of the pitch we have to improve in and I thought in the second half on Saturday we were equally guilty of being a little bit wasteful, as good and as clinical as we were in the first half. We still wanted to get that fifth and sixth goal and tonight we’ve drawn a blank and we must be better.
What was the difference to account for the change in ruthlessness between the first half on Saturday and tonight? Was it the early goal at Burton that gave you confidence?
Goals change games. Even in the second half tonight, they probably had slightly better chances in the first half. We were in control and it was going to take a mad moment, either a mistake from us a game of basketball in the middle of the park from their boy that sent them away.
If that’s not a handball leading to an advantage or the ball hitting the arm leading to an advantage, I’m not sure what that is.
We’ve got to be better, but we all know goals change games and the referee allows play on for something like that, and he allowed one earlier. You have to ask them in their wisdom.
I’m not sure what the law is these days. They probably changed it this week from last week as they normally do, but again, we must be better.
There did appear to be a handball in the build-up to the goal, but there also appeared to be a breakdown in your back four. It seemed that Tom Nichols was able to get in behind Alfie Kilgour?
Yeah, Alfie came forward to win the header and it just bounces between Whelo and their boy. Whelo tries to pass it to Antony Evans but it flicks off their boy, it hits the inside of his hip by the look of it, rolls up his body and rolls of his arm.
It didn’t hit all of his arm, it only hit three-quarters of his arm. It’s not like it’s just brushed his arm, it’s had a period of time on there but maybe the ref was the wrong side and didn’t see it.
For me, we tried to progress in the cup. We picked a side and made one change from Saturday. The lads were more than good enough to go out and win that game but tonight we just weren’t good enough and we’re dumped out of the League Cup.
Obviously, all your energy is focused on bringing players in, but is there any update on the players you’ve told they can leave? Are there options appearing for those guys?
It’s not my priority at the minute, I’m focused on incomings and guys that are going to contribute to the group.
Young Jamie Egan’s gone out on loan to Gloucester so that’s good for him and he’ll get some minutes with Manse to kick-start his career.
Rodders is going to have a decision to make whether he keeps playing or not. If he does, I’m sure he’ll have some options.
Westy and Trev and will be waiting for the phone to ring and leaning on their agents a bit, but my priority is getting boys who can come in and can contribute. That is my focus at this moment in time.
Your other focus is Saturday’s game and that must be enticing after the Carabao Cup, which is not quite the same as a league game. You’re playing Oxford at home at the Mem and that is always a great occasion.
It’s a 12.30 kick-off so a slightly shorter recovery window.
We’ve got to be much better than they were tonight. I don’t think there was anybody who came off the park tonight and thought they gave a great account of themselves.
I said to them in there let’s dust ourselves down and get back to business, which for us is the league and the most pressing thing is to pick up as many points as we can before the transfer window closes and then see where we are.
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