Well, Joey, safely through to the next round…
It should have been safer. We had the game in control. We were guilty of spurning a number of really good opportunities on the counter-attack to get that second goal and put the tie beyond them.
Credit to Colchester they were brave and played a lot more aggressive in terms of putting bodies forward when they were one behind. They got their rewards, a bit of a defensive mix-up. We exposed ourselves and we were a little unlucky with the deflection and James (Belshaw) has got no chance.
Credit to the lads for picking themselves up and going on and winning the tie and not requiring penalties.
Good time for Harvey to get his first goal of the season?
I think for all forward players you want goal involvements and goal moments. I think for Harvey, he has been desperate for an opportunity to get on there and do what he does best which is score goals.
I’m pleased for him, he gets on the end of a good ball in from Gibbo (James Gibbons) and Harvey does what all good strikers do, they stay optimistic and he ends up getting the winner.
You were bright for the first 15 minutes of the first half. Were you a bit frustrated that brightness didn’t stick around for a bit longer?
You have to give Colchester credit, it’s a tricky pitch. I was saying to the lads warming up on it it’s very soft and cut-up quite deeply which can affect the quality of the passing.
With the greatest respect to them, I came off the Mem on Saturday which is a carpet and a fantastic pitch. It’s not a bad pitch but it’s certainly not conducive towards playing good free-flowing passing football on the ground.
Colchester won’t mind that as that’s not really what they do. For us, it was about managing the game. We should have done it with a bit more control but on the flip side of that, the name of the game in the cup is progression and we have managed to do that.
Bobby Thomas wheeled away thinking it was his goal, but was it James Connolly’s goal?
Yeah absolutely, they’ve just been arguing over it whether it was going in or not. I do think it was hitting the post and going in. James said ‘I couldn’t take the chance. What happens if it hits the post and goes out?’ You might as well put it in. An assist for Bob rather than a goal but it’s nice when you’re centre-back partnership is combining for the opening goal.
On the other side of that we’ve got to keep a clean sheet and put the tie beyond them with a second goal.
How is Anssi Jaakkola?
He’s alright, he got kneed first-half in the leg. He’s got a bit of a dead leg which stiffened up and it affected his kicking. They are quite painful when you get them. Sometimes the longer and longer the blood starts flowing in there the stiffer it gets.
If you can’t take a goal kick it’s silly of us to leave him out there. James Belshaw goes on and pretty much the first thing he does is pick the ball out of the back of the net. I’m glad we’ve managed to find a winner because I felt on the balance of play it was a game we should have won.
There are four other League One teams in the draw. Somebody at home I guess is what you would like?
It’s just what it is, it’s the cup, isn’t it? Our focus now switches to Boreham Wood. We’d rather be in the Mem, we know the dimensions and the quality of the pitch.
You always want to be at home in the cup. Certainly, for us the way we play and it does make a big difference towards having home advantage with not only the mad Gasheads that support us but also the quality of the surface.
We’ll take anyone, it’s cup football, and we’re in the next round and I think that is three games from Wembley, so let’s see where we can get to.
Ryan Loft was back involved from the start, 45 minutes for him. Was that always the plan?
Yeah, absolutely. With the pitch, he was a little bit leggy and he’s coming back from a hamstring, so that was always the plan to get him 45.
Josh was ready to go, so it’s a fantastic workout. We’ve got 90 minutes for John Marquis and Luke McCormick, we nearly got it for Trevor Clarke but he just got a bit tired. Good minutes on the clock so I’m really pleased.
Was there a bit of déjà vu from being here last year? It was a dominant performance last year that you didn’t cash in on and it ended 1-1. Junior Tchamadeu was winding people up like last season. Did it feel very similar?
It did a little bit, yeah. It was one of those, we ended up with nine men that off. We had a player sent off for taking a throw-in, which is incredible. Cian Harries was dismissed for a throw-in in that corner down there.
It was just about getting the job done. We knew it would be a tricky game with them having a decent home record. They have been really good at home and struggled away, and they won at the weekend and that has probably lightened the pressure here in terms of the league table.
For us, it would have been nice to do it with a bit more ease rather than a last-minute winner, but either way, we’ll take it.
The biggest challenge Harvey has to face is shaking of that ‘impact sub’ tag, but he is so good in that role because he makes things happen, doesn’t he?
He’s a box player. I know he’s got great athleticism and his running capacity, but he’s always optimistic in gambling in there and he’s just followed in, which is a great instinct for a striker.
You get your rewards for being optimistic in there and expecting the opposition to make a mistake.
All good strikers are always on the move in the box. You watch the top boys and they are always on the move when it seems everybody else is standing still.
Credit to Harvey, he deserved that. His performances when he’s come off the bench have been superb and the competition for starting berths is really high at the moment. Scoring that goal today can’t do any more than further his cause.
The goal you conceded, was it a case of midfielders losing their runners and Bobby Thomas making a bit of a rash decision?
That’s why young players are here to learn. I said to Bob, ‘you’re better leaving that because if you get it wrong, we’re wide open’.
The reality of it is unless you are absolutely sure as a centre-half that you can go and take everything, you’ve got to be clear. We've just got a little bit scrambled after that and Colchester had the ascendancy, so we had to defend properly and we always had that sting in the tail on the counter.
They committed to get back in the game, they had four on the frontline at some point, so we had to get that second goal while they were committed. We didn’t, they got it, and they were knackered because they were already committed to the attack.
They were trying to win the game and, luckily for us, we’ve created another opportunity and scored a good goal.
This week feels like a window of opportunity because you are getting more and more set with your league team. Your first team is starting to emerge like it did last season, so there were chances for the likes of John Marquis, Trevor Clarke and Luke McCormick. Do you think anyone took the chance to change your thinking?
We’ve got to utilise the depth we’ve got in the squad. I was just talking to Kev Maher, who was on the coaching staff with us, and he was saying we’re strong now compared to when he left us, which was probably about a year ago.
We’re gradually building inch by inch, and if you’re going to be successful in a football season, it’s not going to be 11 players. You’re going to need a good squad of players to do that.
I think we made six changes tonight and we’ve still managed to progress. That’s the key for an away tie in the cup.
They played a relatively strong side, similar to us. We both wanted to progress and we’ve just got to keep building.
The lads who have gone in there have got minutes on the clock, which I think they’ll benefit from going forward, and we’ve got another cup tie on Sunday and an opportunity to see how the bodies are and we’ll probably make a couple of changes for that.
We haven’t seen Boreham Wood yet. I believe they’re playing a back three. For us, whether we’re playing a back three or a back four, it’s a nice option to have.
Again for us, it’s about progressing and making sure we’re in the third round come Sunday night.
Lewis Gordon and Lewis Gibson were not involved. Were they just rested?
Yeah, just rested. Some rest in people’s legs but with Glenn Whelan and Paul Coutts being out, it was tough in midfield because we didn’t have so many bodies.
We’re pleased people got minutes. Lofty got minutes, all the lads who have been on the edge got more minutes and a nice body of work, so they should come on for it.
I believe 50 Gasheads made the trip. The World Cup is on, everything costs a lot at the minute. That is an unbelievable effort from those fans, isn’t it?
Superb. We put strong teams out in the competition. We're going to need our fans if we get an away tie or a home tie in this competition because we want to get to Wembley.
It's a three-game carrot at the end of it and it would be nice to take 40-odd-thousand Gasheads to Wembley again.
For us, in the next couple of competitions, whether we're home or away, I know it's not cheap at this moment but all the support from the Gasheads coming out is massive. There were only 50, but we can hear them.
They only had a small number in themselves, but it is important for our players and I can't thank the fans enough because it would be easy to sit in the house and watch the World Cup, especially when it's cold like this, coming all the way here.
I can't thank them enough and hopefully, because they've made that journey, they know we don't toss the competition off and play a load of kids. We want to take the Gas army to the home of football.
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