Sam Ricketts reflects on Town’s thrilling comeback away at Accrington Stanley.
\“Obviously I’m delighted with the win. The three points are everything. Even before that I was really pleased with a lot of the performance. We moved the ball far better today than we have done in previous games and that’s where we’re trying to get to. We’re still a really big work in progress.” Said Sam.
Town were two down with thirteen minutes remaining. Sam brings on two strikers, Daniel Udoh and Fejiri Okenabirhie and instantly made a huge impact.
Sam joked; “I’ll be doing it every game. Fey had a chance just before and he just didn’t quite make contact. I was delighted for him to get his goal and Dan as well. As soon as the ball went up in the air, I could see the defender wasn’t getting there without letting it bounce. In a funny way, I could see the defender because I knew exactly what Dan was going to do and he took the goal superbly well. I’m delighted for him; he’s come in and his attitude has been excellent from the moment we signed him.”
Udoh stroked him Town’s third and winning goal in the 89th minute sending Town’s fans ecstatic.
“He’s been frustrated with injury in the last two to three weeks or so. We rushed him back in and he’s hardly trained. But we rushed him back into the squad today and I’m delighted for him to get back on.” Sam talks about Udoh after having a groin injury.
Udoh made his debut today after moving up from The National North. “I think the hardest thing in football is scoring goals. As good as we have been this year and solid, we haven’t been able to score, and Dan has that of being able to score. I think it was a real good chance under the circumstances when there’s nothing really to lose for him and then to finish up with the winning goal is a great story for him.”
Town’s first goal was an own goal from defender Mark Hughes after a cross whipped in from Ryan Giles. “It’s something that we’ve been working on in that aspect as a team. It’s nice that a goal has eventually come from that even though it’s an own goal. It’s exactly what we’ve been working on at the training ground.”
“I said were a really big work in progress but what you did see from tonight was the team spirit and within the players and everyone is in this together, the character showed by everyone, the players on the pitch, the players that come off the subs that come on, the subs that didn’t come on. You can see the atmosphere at the end of the game and the drive to come back. A lot of teams could’ve given up, this isn’t an easy place to come especially on a Tuesday night, we’ve nearly probably seen what the league is going throw at us every game from our four games now, but our togetherness and everything is vital.”
Goalkeeper Max O’Leary had to make a fair amount of saves tonight. “Max is a good keeper; he’s paid to make saves. He will make saves for us.”
“I saw a real big step up and improvement in terms of ball speed today and moving the ball which is vital going forward for the way that we want to play. I was devastated the way we were 2-0 down because I don’t think the level of performance deserved that and I didn’t want to knock what we’re trying to do. The comeback is everything and the supporters who were here can see the togetherness and what we’re trying to do.”
Sam concluded with; “I think it will give everyone a shot in the arm, confidence wise, not only the performance, we spoke about the performance at half-time, it was about going on again and we find ourselves 1-0 down, like I said was it a penalty was it not, I’m not sure, 2-0 down all of a sudden off a great strike but the togetherness and everything. Now we must build on this and go again and where we are as a team were in our infants’ stages, but we’ve got like the likes of Josh Laurent and Ollie Norburn to come back in.”
Town look to host Burton Albion at home on Saturday and hope to continue their solid performances with another three points.