00:00They might have got one or two, but if we were 6-2 up at half-time,
00:03I don't think it would have been unfair reflection on the scoreline.
00:07At half-time, we spoke to the lads about staying aggressive,
00:10staying front foot, denying the space on the pitch.
00:14But you can see a team there that haven't won for a long time.
00:17And then you add the injuries to that.
00:19We didn't really have the changes to make us sort of balanced
00:22in terms of our formation and the personnel.
00:25And in the end, it was throwing square pegs in round holes
00:27and hoping for the best.
00:29And when you hope for the best, what I mean by that is
00:31you hope that the lads defend the box excellently well.
00:33Hazy's made a couple of great saves.
00:35The boys have thrown their bodies in the way, got some great blocks in.
00:39And we managed to see it out.
00:40But I looked at the clock at 67.24,
00:42and I thought this is the longest 22 minutes of my life in the second half.
00:45So, no, just extremely proud.
00:48I thought it was a real collective effort today.
00:50And this is what this club's all about.
00:51You can see the boys on the pitch giving their all.
00:53And like I said, the supporters were absolutely phenomenal.
00:56They really drove us on.
00:57And they sung the whole second half when there wasn't really too much going on.
01:00And like I say, that one there is for the players and for the supporters.
01:04How much confidence are you going to do?
01:07Hopefully a lot.
01:08Going into Barnsley next Saturday,
01:10which is always going to be a tough game against the League One opposition.
01:13But we'll go there with absolutely nothing to fear.
01:16I think they were winning at half-time against Oxford United today, which is no mean feat.
01:20But it's a game that we can go and look forward to now.
01:22If we'd have lost today, we'd have gone there with our tails between our legs,
01:25lacking a load of confidence.
01:27That gives us a bit of belief.
01:28Of course it does.
01:30But for me, it's the clean sheet, a win.
01:33The performance comes secondary at the moment.
01:36But the performance for the first half, I thought, was up there with the best it's been this season.
01:41So just a shame that we're not ruthless enough in front of goal at the moment.
01:44And that's not talking about strikers.
01:46We could talk about centre-halves, maybe header in the ball.
01:48Or we could talk about wingers coming inside and shooting.
01:50So a lot to like, a lot to work on.
01:53But this is a process, right?
01:54The lads are very young.
01:56I think we've got the second-youngest squad in the League.
01:58So they're going to be lacking a little bit of game now, some management.
02:02But listen, today, it's all credit to them.
02:04How do you approach the preparations for this week?
02:07Because we've got Bitsch and the 21s in the National League Cup
02:09and then Barnsley away in the Cup.
02:11Yeah, we haven't got any players.
02:13That's the problem.
02:13We've got a game on Tuesday night, which we didn't really want to play too many players in
02:17and risk injury.
02:19It might be time to get my boots on for 45 minutes, I'm not sure.
02:22But that's where we're at at the moment.
02:23I think we've got six or seven out, which is probably 33% of our squad,
02:28which isn't easy.
02:30But yeah, we're going to have to probably get home tonight.
02:33I'll watch the game back, reflect and analyse,
02:36and then think about Tuesday, probably tomorrow.
02:39There's even boys in there that didn't come off the pitch that are struggling as well.
02:42So it's not a sob story.
02:45We'll get a team out there for Tuesday
02:47and then hopefully wrap them up in cotton wool Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
02:50ahead of a massive game on Saturday.
02:53Yeah, and obviously the win's the most important thing today
02:55and obviously be feeling delighted with that.
02:57But in that first half, you know, really could have been more than one.
02:59Could have been three or four in the front four causing havoc at times.
03:02Yeah, I live by this sort of six R's saying and three of them are ruthless, relentless and resilient.
03:08And I said to the lads, if you don't get the second, they said you're going to have to be
03:10resilient.
03:11I wanted them to be relentless.
03:13I wanted them to be ruthless.
03:14And they didn't manage to do that in front of the goal.
03:17But what did come up trumps was the resilience of the group.
03:20So defensively this season, we've only conceded 19 goals in 16 games, which is excellent.
03:26But we've not scored enough.
03:28We need to score double the amount of goals of the ones we've conceded to be where we want to
03:31be.
03:32If we've conceded 20, then we probably need to score 50% more, which would be 30 goals.
03:37So, yeah, that's the only disappointment.
03:40In front of goal, we're getting chances, which is a positive.
03:44We've had probably more shots today than we have for a long time.
03:47But it could have made it easy for ourselves.
03:49But listen, after five defeats, it's never going to be plain sailing against a team that got nothing to lose.
03:53And credit to Gates said I thought they were outstanding in the second half by playing a way in which
03:57caused us problems.
03:58They threw bodies forward.
03:59There wasn't really too much shape to what they were playing.
04:03Their manager just told me that in there.
04:04He said, I just thought we'll throw caution to the wind.
04:06And then it causes problems.
04:08And Oli Harfield, you know, he's sort of making his way back in another 90 minutes.
04:12And he just looks so impressive out there for something he's been through.
04:15Yeah, he does.
04:16Like, me and Oli have had loads of conversations about what his return to play looks like.
04:21And I thought he was maybe getting ahead of the curve a little bit in terms of where he wanted
04:25to be and how many games he wanted to play.
04:26And I thought it would be a slow process.
04:28But he's been outstanding.
04:30And it's quite remarkable, to say the least, in terms of how he's been.
04:35And because to be out for 26 months and then come back and put the performances like he has, can't
04:40be anything but proud.
04:41And it's there to be admired.
04:43So he looks like he hasn't been away.
04:45He's the best crosser of the ball in the team on our left-hand side.
04:48Brodie's probably the best on the right-hand side.
04:50And when you've got balls coming to the box on both sides like that, it's probably going to be something
04:54that we can play to.
04:55It's the strength of ours.
04:56So, no, Oli's been great.
04:58But like I say today, today was a collective.
05:00It was a team effort on the pitch and in the stands as well.
05:03Yeah, the backing from the fans.
05:05You know, at the end there, when Gates had asked, sort of, throwing that caution to the wind, the fans
05:08really stuck by it, didn't they?
05:09Yeah, I actually tweeted because I thought, you know, if I can say it out on socials, it might just,
05:14it might hit one of them that sees it and then goes, right, let's really get behind the boys.
05:18And I thought they were phenomenal and that's how important they are.
05:22We're never going to win games of football if their support isn't there.
05:27I thought it was incredible.
05:29Really, really good.
05:30The best I've seen at the season in the second half when we weren't great and they stuck by us
05:34and really drove us over the line.
05:36And Brodie got man in the match, but the whole front four of Brodie, Tristan, Hakim and Basil really did
05:40sort of link up well at times, didn't they?
05:41Yeah, I thought Tristan was a focal point.
05:43I thought he was a real positive.
05:45He kind of linked the three in behind him.
05:48He, I thought he was outstanding, but to single out anyone, it's tough because the boys at the back line
05:52threw their bodies on the line at the end there.
05:54And like I say, it was such a team effort and that's what we're built on.
05:57We've got such a good rapport.
05:59We've got a real good, honest group in there where I can tell them the truth.
06:02They can tell me how they feel and we can be honest with one another.
06:05So I like that.
06:07I liked it as a player and I like being that way as a manager that I can speak to
06:11them with honesty and they take it on board.
06:13They're not always going to get it right.
06:14I'm not always going to get it right either.
06:16But listen, today I thought we were exceptionally good for 45.
