Graham Turner's thoughts after the defeat at Leyton Orient
Graham Turner cut a desolate figure after Kevin Lisbie’s double did for his Shrewsbury side away at Orient. Jon Taylor had levelled for Town with 20 minutes to go but some sleepy defensive work at a corner allowed Lisbie to ghost in and bury a late header to secure the win for Russell Slade’s men.
“It’s difficult to accept the circumstances of the defeat,” said Turner. “No one’s going to give us anything at the moment, we have to go and earn anything that we do get. I thought in the first half that we weathered an early storm from them and then had a period where Jon, Luke (Summerfield) and Marvin had reasonable chances, but the penalty changes the whole mood around the place. The crowd were starting to have a little moan and their players were getting a bit edgy and that penalty settles them all down. We didn’t start the 2nd half particularly well but getting a goal back from a terrific goal full of pace and movement along with a great finish, you feel you can hang on and get something from the game. We didn’t deliberately go defensive to try and hang on and we got into one or two positions we might have done better with. To concede a goal from a corner when everybody’s got a job to do is particularly galling and upsetting. Lisbie should never have had that much freedom in the box as we had enough bodies in there to have dealt with it and that’s what makes it annoying.”
Turner thought that Jeremy Helane’s inexperience proved costly for the crucial opener which came from the penalty spot. “There was no need to go to ground. The lad had all the problems there and the ball was running towards the goalline so he still had a bit to do even if he had got to it. It was stupid to go to ground in that situation.”
The Town chief was asked about Luke Rodgers contribution and felt that he would get better as he got games under his belt: “He looked full of energy. He’s fit and showed good movement at times and we will benefit from his experience and his forward play I’ve no doubts about that.”
Turner accepted that he had to pick the players heads up after a third away defeat inside a week and thought the league table had an embarrassing look to it: “It will be hard to keep their heads up but I want them to feel depressed and feel the hurt of losing again until Monday when we’ll go again and try to get ready for next Saturday which is all we can do. The only way forward is to work that little bit harder and make things change for us. Without a shadow of a doubt I think we’re close to turning things around. Recently we seem to have forgotten how to pass the ball and yet earlier in the season we had periods of good play even though we lost the odd game or two. But with the circumstances we have found ourselves in, one or two of the players have become anxious and we’ve forgotten to get on the ball and pass it. But there were signs today that we were getting back to that. You have to look at tables no matter how much it hurts. It’s a totally embarrassing situation we find ourselves in but we have to dig ourselves out of it.”