Joey, it was a fast and furious game as you probably expected. How did you assess your side's performance today?
I didn’t think we were good enough in the first half, if I’m honest. I didn’t think we were as good as we could be. Too many of our usual good performers didn’t have good performances.
So we adjusted at half time. We huffed and puffed in the second half. They were slowing the game down and running the clock down.
For me the referee allowed a little too much time-wasting. But we kept huffing and puffing.
We were nowhere near our best and we didn't get anything out of the game. If you want to come to these sides and take maximum points you have to play much better.
So, 12 to go. Disappointed but we pick ourselves up and go again Tuesday.
Some of your creative players, I think Newport marked them out of the game, would that be a fair assessment?
Yeah, I thought they were good today. They certainly got amongst us and made it difficult. For us, we have to find solutions for that. We’ve got enough quality in the team to exploit that.
As I say we huffed and puffed, we created a few moments but nowhere near enough dominance in terms of pressure to make them crack and get that goal.
They had, as I say, a competent performance and we’ve got to be much better if we’re going to come here and win today.
Connor went off at half time, was that a precaution? What was the issue there?
Just rocked his ankle. We tried to strap it up and go again, but you’ve got to be careful with him.
We had the opportunity there to get Lofty on the park. I felt we needed a number nine on the pitch because we were chasing a goal.
So, a little bit of Connor’s injury and a little bit tactical. Again we’ve huffed and puffed but we haven’t created enough.
I guess that’s a positive today, 45 minutes from him. (Jon) Nolan came on and we had the chance to see what he could do as well…
It was tough. We lost Clarkey, he’s picked up a bit of a niggle after starting (against Barrow). We’re trying to get that continuity of having a focal point, we just haven’t managed to get that at this moment in time.
We spoke in the dressing room and right across the board the lads we’re honest and knew that wasn’t good enough.
We didn’t hit our standard of performance and if you do that and you come to a side riding high you won’t pick any points up.
So, we must be better and hopefully Tuesday night we will be.
I was going to say it is a blow, but not a critical one and you can get back on the horse Tuesday night now…
There’s lots of twists and turns between now and the end of the season. For us obviously an opportunity to go above Newport today having closed a bit of ground on them it became a six-pointer.
But again, lots of tough fixtures. Our Fixtures and Newport’s fixtures. They’ve got pretty much everyone in the top seven or eight to play between now and the end of the season.
We’ve got lots of times in and around there to play. So it’s all to play for. We got ourselves back in the race and if we run our race like we did in the first half, it won’t be a successful finish.
So, we must be better. In recent weeks and months, we have been and I’ve got no doubt the lads will be on Tuesday night.
Joey, what did you make of the five minutes before the goal came. Because I think for the first 20 minutes of that first half it was a bit back-and-forth, but it felt like before the goal things got a bit chaotic and a bit rushed meaning that pressure built and fans got back up again. You did quite well at one point….
I know exactly where that has come from and we’ve spoken about it. It’s come from something that should have been dealt with very simply by us.
But it wasn’t and that led to a spell as you rightly pointed out. Their long throw and a corner came from that and off the back of that was the shot from the edge of the box.
So, there’s lads who’ve been given opportunities today and we’ve got some good players who haven’t played to freshen them up and unfortunately Tuesday night they’ll be giving the jersey back to people and they may not see it between now and the end of the season.
Such has been the quality of some performances and as I say we’ve dropped three points here today but still 36 to play for in the season and we must be much better.
Do you think it’s a step on the learning curve for some of your more creative players today who came under intense pressure? They really tried to press the likes of Antony and Elliot Anderson who were never going to be given much time on the ball because of what they can create, but they were under a lot of pressure...
Yeah, they were up in our faces a little bit. They’ve got some good lads. Finn Azaz on loan from West Brom. (Jake) Cain from Liverpool on loan. We’ve got Billy (Elliot Anderson) from Newcastle.
So, if you’re going to play higher in the football table. Pressure in division three, two and one gets a lot more intense than division four, so it’s something you have to get used to.
But again credit to Newport, they had a gameplan. They stuck to it and it was effective for them. They defended resolutely.
I’ve never seen this many players in a game of football where different people have different injuries at different times. I was frustrated with the officials because the lad went down and put his hands to his face a little bit later than he
The keeper had about five goes of sitting down. Both centre-halves had a go. I can’t say we wouldn’t have done the same in that situation and that’s where you need the officials to help you and they didn’t.
They got their nose in front with the wind and the conditions. We knew we’d come on stronger in the second half due to the conditions and they had something to hang onto and defend the goal resolutely.
When we found a way past their defence, the keeper was there to make a few good saves, as he did from Luca Hoole late on in the game.
So, we’re disappointed but as I say we’ll be back and we’ll be better.
As you say you came very close to getting that equaliser with Luca’s header. The pressure did build in that stoppage time period but you didn’t necessarily get the pressure you wanted in those last 20 minutes. Beyond their gamesmanship, why do you think that was? Was it just an off day for your players?
When I look at it there were definitely four or five players, certainly in the first half, who I felt I could fairly label at them that they weren’t performing at their normal level.
That’s not to say they’re not playing well because you can’t necessarily play well every single week, but they certainly weren’t performing at their operating level which is a basic performance.
Too many were below that today and as I say you can’t go to a team away from home that are on a good run themselves and having a good season and have four or five passengers, and we did in the first period.
I think we improved markedly in the second period, but again it wasn’t enough to create phase after phase of pressure and ultimately unlock their goal and get back in the game.
Credit to Newport though they’re a good side and they’ve caused us to be not at our best today and take maximum points.
Obviously, you guys have earned plenty of credit in the bank for the fans to believe in you and what you’re doing, but do you have a message to the supporters today who might be a little bit disheartened going back in what you said was a big game and a six-pointer?
Yeah, it was a six-pointer. If we win we get a chance to leapfrog them. So we were aware there was a lot more than three points, momentum or whatever it was on the line.
But also we were aware that if we won it didn’t mean anything, we were still going to have 12 real tough fixtures between now and the end of the season.
We’ve dropped three points, there were 39 available before today, there’s now 36 and we’re intent on getting as many of them as we possibly can and let’s see what that leads to.
But, we’ve got a live chance at the end of the season. We’ve still got to get a couple of points I think to be mathematically safe, because that is the first target especially when you nosedive out of the division in the manner the club did in the previous campaign.
So let’s not get too carried away. We’re moving in the right direction and there will be a period where we come and control games like this, but it’s part of this team and our group's learning curve.
So, disappointed today, but also really pleased with the progress made that the whole club has made in the last couple of months and we mustn’t lose sight of that.
There’s going to be some great days ahead. Today wasn’t one of them, but we’ve got to work hard to make sure we don’t have too many more like this between now and May.
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