Joey, congratulations, you’re into the hat. I guess that is the most important thing on days like this?
Yeah, in cup football the name of the game is to get through. Ideally, you want to stay in the hat, but with replays available, the last thing you want is to get a replay in this competition.
If you can progress and you’re in your own stadium, as frustrated as we can be sometimes with levels of performance, the aim of the game in the cup is to progress and we’ve done that today.
That moment will be one I’m sure Scott Sinclair will remember fondly.
Yeah, his first start for Rovers and his first goal. It rounds the circle of his journey really nicely for him. I’m hoping that’s the first of many.
I thought he was our best player on the day. It was nice for him to score and get the winner, and for it to be at Thatchers End, it was a nice moment for him and his family. I thought he was excellent today.
First half, I thought you had control of the game but you were probably bit slow in getting the ball forward to penetrate them?
Yeah, it’s tough. We don’t face that so much in League One, a team that is sitting in and they respect the difference between the two teams and the divisional hierarchy.
They have come with a game plan to make it tricky for us and to get us to over-commit and take chances and their plan was to counter back through that.
We actually started alright and this is the problem with teaching lads at this level. Premier League lads are well versed in that and they will keep the ball, have 600 or 700 passes and they will just tire the opposition out.
Our lads are on a journey. We worked a lot this week on phase after phase of possession knowing what the likely mindset of the opposition would be. I just think people got a bit frustrated.
But for me, there were lots of good parts with James Connolly getting minutes, Scott Sinclair getting minutes. We’ve progressed in the cup and it’s a welcome distraction from the league, but we can certainly play a lot better than that.
But it’s a win and that just helps breed confidence and keeps the ball rolling.
We always enjoy winning games. We’re in the cup and you see today, there are loads of upsets with non-league sides beating league sides. It’s always tricky, we’ve got everything to lose and nothing to gain by playing Rochdale today.
They have a chance of just switching off from the league campaign and I thought they were really good, I thought they created some good chances and they showed they are certainly capable of being higher up the League Two table than they currently are.
Jim (Bentley) and Nick Chadwick, who played in the same youth team as me, I’m gutted for them that they lost the game, but I’m pleased we’ve got through.
We had to ride our luck at times and Belly’s had to make good saves at times, so hopefully, our name’s on the cup, hey?
And is it a case of a home time in the next round and that’s all you can ask for?
I’m hoping for King’s Lynn at home, or away, that’ll do. They’ve won today and I’ll have a go at them, hey?
Joey, at times it felt like there was a bit of a lack of intensity and at the start of the second half Rochdale were getting what they wanted and it might have started to slip away from you with a couple of chances given away. James Belshaw makes a really good save and the way you responded from that moment, you took the game away from them.
Yeah, we’ve got a bit of quality. We altered it slightly in the second half to get some different looks on the outside and I definitely feel like there were some strange moments in the second half.
Belly has had to make one or two really good saves and maybe they have been guilty of missing their opportunities, but on the flipside at the other end, we probably have. There’s a great defensive block from Trevor Clarke, there’s a chance for Scotty to make it 2-0 and put it beyond them.
Without a recognised number nine today, I know we got promoted out of League Two without one, but I think today a Josh Coburn, Ryan Loft or John Marquis type, I felt we lacked that.
I think we really benefitted from Harvey Saunders coming on. He chased down a ball into the corner and turned it from a goal kick into a corner and we scored from that.
Tactically, maybe I played one too many midfielders today and maybe I should have started Harvey from the start.
Did it feel like going back in time a bit? It did feel like a lot of games in League Two before you got Elliot Anderson. You didn’t have the recognised striker and it was about moments rather than a sustained performance.
That’s why you pay what you pay for the number nine. It’s why they get the headlines and why they get all the money usually in terms of they lead the line and they give you a focal point to the team and to have that strong spine is important.
From my perspective, Aaron Collins plays better off a nine. In the last few weeks, Ryan Loft has become an important player for us, and to lose Josh Coburn just makes Azza have to do more of the things he’s not so good at and less of the things he’s really good at.
We’ve progressed today, we’ve got minutes into players who are coming back into the fold. We know next week against Fleetwood in the league, we’re going to have to be a lot better than that but also we should have some bodies returning and hopefully, we can get back to business in the league and we get a nice draw in the cup and who knows.
You might not have given him a contract otherwise, and you have probably have seen it in training for weeks, but today you can see Scott has still got that 10-yard speed where he stands up a full-back and he can get beyond him.
You don’t actually need speed if you’ve got a really quick mind. You can be quick in the body but slow in the mind and also be really slow in the body but quick in the mind.
He has been a player who has been quick in the body and he’s still alright, he’s looked after himself superbly, but the amount of experience he’s got in the mind, you can see when the ball comes to him. He just takes care of it, it’s a friend of his.
The goal is as an experience goal, just gambling. He gets off the back of the runner and into a goalscoring area and he gets himself a tap-in.
That is not easy, although he makes it look really easy because it’s an intelligent movement.
But on the whole, he was constantly a safe option for us whenever we went into him in the first half. He looked like the player who would open up the door.
He’s played for some big football clubs so to add him to our group at the time we added him to our group is a really big positive and he’s shown today just why.
I thought he was exceptional and he ends up getting the minutes in the tank which no doubt he will benefit from, but over the course of the season, I think he’s going to be a big player for us.
How do you sum up the start to your relationship with Scott? How has it been working with him and do you have positive hopes that it will last beyond January?
Yeah. For us, it was a case of us getting him in the building and I think he’s enjoying his football here. He’s obviously playing well as you’ve seen in the cameos and today. He will only continue to improve with the regular rhythm of games.
For us, I would imagine if he’s playing well and he’s enjoying it, it gives us a better opportunity of keeping him beyond January, but if bigger clubs come calling it could be quite difficult for us. But he’s a Gashead, isn’t he?
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