Graham Turner’s thoughts after the home defeat to Rotherham United
Town took on Rotherham United at the rain soaked Greenhous Meadow and after 20 minutes the weather matched the home side’s performance.
3-0 down early on made it an uphill tasks for Town and despite an improved second half performance it was another home defeat and another home game without a Town goal.
After the game manager Graham Turner spoke to the press to give his thoughts on the game:”You can’t concede goals like we are conceding, it’s as simple as that, it’s the second week that we’ve conceded a goal from a cross and a header.
“We looked at things in training on Thursday and Friday to counter the amount of balls that Rotherham get into the box and the directness that they something play but today we didn’t cope with that.
“They were appalling goals that we conceded in that first half and you can’t do that as it puts everyone on edge and puts the crowd against the players.”
The manager was asked what thoughts were going through his head when he looked up at the scoreboard after 20 minutes and saw the scoreline:”I think it was an embarrassing 20 minutes, I know their first goal came early but we’ve had a quick look at the DVD and one attack and we are 1-0 down, two attacks and we are 2-0 down.”
After the break Town showed a little bit more resolve and tried to make a game of it. There were no goals to show for that extra hard work but a little bit of hope for the manager:”The least you can expect is for the players to up the tempo a little bit after putting in the first half performance like the one we did.
“I can understand us getting up tight on the ball when your 3-0 down as you lose a little bit of confidence.
“In that first 25 minutes of the second half the crowd got behind the players and the players upped the tempo and we looked like we would cause them some problems.
“We have to face the fact that we are conceding too many goals; we’ve had a good defensive record up until these last two games where we’ve conceded six goals.”
The half-time and full-time whistles from the referee were met with a chorus of boos from around the Greenhous Meadow, something which GT can fully understand and accept:”Of course you accept that because of the recent sequence of home results and then the first 20 minutes performance you can understand people being upset.”
The defeat also gives Town the unwelcome stat of going nearly 8 hours at the Greenhous Meadow without scoring a goal. Just a few seasons back Town went on a record breaking undefeated home run but that seems an age away:”It does defy belief as this stadium used to be such a fortress for us.
“We’ve changed the system and we’ve changed the personnel and to some extent we can say that we’ve been unlucky with some of the chances that we’ve missed.
“Today at 1-0 down we’ve hit the post and sometimes moments like that can turn a match back in your favour.
“We can see that we are not scoring enough and what we need to do as a team is accept that as a team, not defensively, not attacking wise but as a team as it’s easy to point fingers.
“As a manager you take full responsibility of what goes on on the pitch and I take full responsibility for what has happened today.”
In his programme notes for today’s game Graham Turner wrote about the mounting pressure that comes to a manager when results aren’t going a clubs way. The 3-0 home defeat will have done little to ease that pressure:”I don’t doubt that at all, the longer you go without a victory the more the pressure rises.
“We’ve got to make sure that this club is a League 1 club next season and that has to be the objective of everybody.”