Gaffer reacts to derby day defeat at the Banks’s Stadium
By Matt Johnson
Graham Turner refused to make any excuses after his side’s “worst and most inept performance of the season” in the 3-1 defeat to Walsall at the Banks’s Stadium.
The Saddlers dispatched a penalty on the half-hour and then two within the space of nine minutes at the start of the second-half to put the result beyond doubt. Dave McAllister headed home a consolation with 13 minutes remaining but the unlikely comeback failed to materialise.
“I think that it is the most inept that we have been for a long, long time,” said Turner.
“I’ve got to say that it is probably the worst and most inept performance that we’ve put on this season. I think you balance that with the fact that Walsall are a good, sharp side and there were two 20 minute spells at the start of each half where they totally outworked us, and that’s the disappointment because we were so one-paced.”
A sluggish start to the second period put pay to any hope of a Town revival as Turner voiced his frustration over the immediate setback from the restart.
“We’ve paid the price by going a goal down, but then the goal right after half-time killed us off.
“You get them in, gathered and organised to go again in the second-half and then to concede a goal like that absolutely kills you. It was overall a very, very poor performance.
“Even the goal that we got back, you hoped that we’d of put them under a bit of pressure in the last ten minutes but we didn’t really look convincing.”
Town were forced to play for almost an hour with ten men against Doncaster in midweek, and Turner wondered whether that battle had an effect on his team in the defeat to the Saddlers.
“When you get over the anger, you have to look for reasons why we were so inept and why there were so many poor performers.
“What you don’t want to do at this point is make any sort of excuses for that performance. There were so many poor performances individually, that you have to look and think why. How much did Tuesday take out of us and how much did conceding the extra time winner take out of us.
“We’re now in a precarious position in the league, we know that. You can’t always play your way out of trouble at this stage of the season, you’ve got to work your way out of trouble and we didn’t work hard enough today.”