Joey, what was the difference out there tonight between the sides?
I don’t think there was much in it. You are reliant on the officials to get major decisions right and, unfortunately, tonight the linesman has had a guess, as they do at the level.
I was worried when I saw that referee, every time I get him he does something barmy, that ref. I’m not really putting that on his toes, the linesman has only got one job to do and it’s disappointing when they guess.
Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t. If we score that there, there is only one team looking likely to go and win the game.
Credit to our lads. We’ve technically got nothing to play for in our season, but I think everyone who was at the game tonight can see the lads had a right go in the second half and with a bit better officiating, we would have drawn the game if not gone on and pushed on to try and win it.
This is the John Marquis offside goal? Have you seen the pictures again?
Yeah, we’re lucky. We get the benefit of having a replay instantly. If we have VAR, it’s a goal. He’s a good yard or two onside.
The linesman has got one job to do, looking across the line, and I know it’s tough for them without the benefit of the replay.
You speak to them at the end, just to get them to accept they have made a mistake, but they don’t. They are a law unto themselves at this level and it cost us.
Thankfully, we’re not chasing automatic promotion or a play-off spot because the mistake could have been felt a lot more.
We’re disappointed, but we can’t give ourselves mountains to climb all the time.
You did, didn’t you? And those were two preventable goals in that first half.
I think you have to give Barry Bannan a helluva lot of credit. To beat Belly, it must’ve been a helluva strike. I wasn’t that side and I didn’t expect to see it in the net, but you know Barry’s got that quality. It’s difficult when someone hits the ball that well.
The second goal was preventable. I felt we should have dealt with long throw that came in the box just before and we didn’t and there was a bit of confusion in there. We should have dealt with that as a team better.
We’re 2-0 down so we make a few changes at half time and we score early and you think the Gasheads are with us and we’re getting back in it.
We get the equaliser, but the officials, in the context of the game, make a big error and that cost us mounting a comeback and possibly winning the game.
This season is not done yet but how far down the line are you with making decisions on players and futures and that sort of thing, or are the remaining games still giving you a chance to make some of those decisions?
Look, I think Sheff Wed are third tonight and after playing against them, and I say this with the greatest respect to them, but they are not easy on the eye, are they?
What did they have, 180 passes or something? I know they’ve beaten us 2-1, but if you play that type of football, that ain’t going to keep you in the Championship.
I keep saying this about teams but they have got big resources, big resource pools, but I said to the lads in there ‘That’s the bar, they are the automatic promotion bar’. Derby were the play-off bar of where we need to be if we want to be successful in our challenge next season.
I don’t worry about us building a team capable of challenging if that’s the benchmark. I know they’ve 12, 14, £15million budgets, the last two opponents, but the standard at this level is certainly attainable for us if we find a bit more maturity in our performance and we get a bit more consistency, which I think will come from lads accumulating minutes and experience.
We have just got to keep building on the solid foundations of, from our perspective, a successful season. Getting in the division was key, but consolidating and staying the division which the lads have done with games to spare, now the lads get a taste of the top end of the division and there is absolutely nothing to fear if Derby and Sheffield Wednesday are to go by.
Joey, you often say doing the basics superbly is a key part of the game. Is that the message for your players that it is not necessarily outstanding quality that makes the difference between top teams and mid-table teams? They clear their lines, Aden Flint wins every header, for example. That sort of stuff, is that the difference?
Of course and that’s what they’re getting paid 10, 12, 14 grand a week for. Bannan will probably be on 25 grand a week, Josh Windass probably in the same boat. Smith and Gregory will be 6-10 grand a week. Palmer, you keep adding this up and that’s what you get. You buy that experience.
We have to go and take loans and younger players on £1,000 a week or £2,000 a week and you get what you pay for in our game. There’s a saying that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys and it’s true. Pep Guardiola is the best coach in the world, but he has spent £2billion to get those resources.
Sheffield Wednesday and Derby, they have got vast resources, but you can see the MO. I’m always mindful of where you come from and what you’re trying to do. They have got to get promoted, those types of teams with the fanbase and the budgets, but then they’ve got to sustain Championship football beyond and hopefully one day kick on and challenge to become a Premier League club, which both of them have been in the past.
They have got their way of doing it, but for us, we’ve got to realise how close we are to those teams. We do it in a slightly different way and there are bits of their game that you point out, that streetwise, heading the ball out of the box stuff they do really well, but we also have to build on the good stuff.
The control of the football, we had lots of control for the first 30 minutes and Jarell makes a mistake, probably because he’s not knocked in.
I have to accept that maybe I’ve overthought that a bit tactically. I knew they were going to load and pump the ball long to the two big lads and they cause you a problem, so I wanted to have three defenders to deal with that but I don’t think the shape suited us.
As a manager, I have to accept that tactically. I change the shape in the second half and we get back in it.
We’re trying things at the minute. I was tempted to put Jed Ward on at half time, just to get him the experience because we might as well learn something from this spell.
Positions in the team are up for grabs and I need to learn who can come on this journey with us next year. The lads are always auditioning and nobody is safe or guaranteed a place here next season because we’ve got to get better and improve.
I’m really pleased with lots of the past 180 minutes against two really big football clubs, but we’ve got to be cuter and cleverer at times and stop giving ourselves goal deficits or two-goal deficits to overcome.
Can you give me a bit more detail on those positives that you have seen?
We’ve had 1,100 passes against Derby County, who were First Division winners, and a former Premier League club in Sheffield Wednesday, and without being disrespectful to Paul Warne or Darren Moore, our budget is £3.5million. Give me £6-8m, they won’t see the football.
The reality of it is they have got £12-14m worth of players and unfortunately in our game, money talks.
Good to have Aaron Collins back in the goals and it was an excellent finish.
Yeah, really nice. Good anticipation from Az, and nice to see him back in the goals. It was a really good finish and we got it early enough where you feel the energy build in the stadium.
That second goal is key. It’s a legitimate goal and the amateurs in the professional game have struck again. You try and speak to him just to get him to admit he has made a mistake, but they are like traffic wardens, referees. You can’t speak to them.
It’s frustrating when that throws the game, but we’ve got to be better and not be 2-0 down at half time and get ourselves in the ascendancy.
I’m not going to bleat on about the referee much more, but it is frustrating when you have got one job to do as a linesman and you can’t even do that correctly.
You were booked by the referee. Was that related to the handball decision in front of the touchline or something else?
No, no, it was because I threw my arms and gesticulated too passionately at his decision. You can’t do anything now. You don’t swear at them but you are too assertive in your motion, yellow card. You are assertive with them in other ways, red card.
It’s very frustrating with the officials because they are a law unto themselves and you’ve got to be careful what you say because they’ll be trying to fine you and get more moments in front of the disciplinary commission, which I’ve had enough of in my history and I don’t want any more of.
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