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Interviews

Post Bolton | Matt Taylor

7 November 2023

Boss Matt Taylor spoke to the media following our 2-0 defeat to Bolton.

In what - overall - was an even and keenly contested 90 minutes, Paris Maghoma put the visitors ahead shortly past the hour mark.

Aaron Morley then sealed the points with a strike deep into added-on time.

The loss, though, was a tough one to take for Town with there being little to separate the two sides over the 90 minutes.

But it was Bolton who found that quality at key times - with that enough to see the promotion chasers claim all three points.

On the game: 

“The performance was good up until an error – which is uncharacteristic for Marko, he has been brilliant since I’ve been here and he’s been a fantastic servant to the football club. 

“That changed the game. The first goal in this league is hugely important. 

“They then go on. We give away a second goal slightly naively. But for large parts of that game, I thought we were excellent. 

Our performance out of possession (was excellent). When we got it, of course, we are always going to want to be better with the ball. 

“But the performance was really good. An error has cost us. You can’t hide away from that. You have to accept it and you have to move on from it. 

“That is the disappointing thing for us tonight because it is uncharacteristic. 

“But up until that point, we have dominated in terms of final third entries. We’ve dominated in terms of corners, in terms of the areas of the pitch we want to be in. 

Yes, we haven’t made those territorial advantages count. But we are playing against one of the biggest and best clubs in the league. 

“For me today, for us not to come away with at least a point is really difficult right now with the emotion as raw as it is. 

“You have also got to take into consideration – and I haven’t spoken a huge amount about this – but we have got Morgan Feeney out, Ryan Bowman out, George Nurse, Ryan Finnigan, Brandon Fleming and Kieran Phillips. 

That’s six first-team players. You look at that and you look at the effect that has on our group. 

“We don’t have the biggest group anyway. And when you are competing against teams like Bolton, who can change a front two like-for-like, can change midfielders like-for-like. 

“We aren’t able to do that. We tried to go for the game at the end by looking around at the bench and not having a striker on there. 

“Max has come on and done excellently. I must say that. He was really good. That is the standard he now has to play at when he’s involved on Saturday. 

“We have changed it and gone with Chey (Dunkley) up front and gone with Aaron (Pierre) to be a bit more direct. 

“The ball nearly bounced for us. But then you will always be open to a counter-attack 

And ultimately, in the 97th minute, that has what has made the game look – in terms of a scoreline – much worse for us than it was. 

“The performance was good. The players are giving everything. I thought we got it tactically correct out of possession. 

“I will challenge the players that they need to be better in those moments when we have regained the ball. 

It’s not so much the first pass - it’s that final ball to slide a team mate in, to take a shot, whether to cross it. They are the details we need to be better at. 

“But I’ve also said to the players that you can’t feel sorry for yourself in this game. I won’t. I will accept. The players need to accept it.  

Tonight the performance was good but the result isn’t good enough. I felt we had a really good chance of winning that game and we did. 

But ultimately, the moment in the game that was the biggest moment for them, we didn’t deal with.” 

On Marko Marosi coming off injured: 

“He jarred his back during the warm-up. 

He’s tried to stay on – whether or not that is the correct decision, he has done that with the right thoughts. 

“But I can’t question Marko because ever since I’ve been in the building he’s been really good. 

I think he is an excellent goalkeeper. We will reassess that (injury). 

“Ryan Bowman pulled out of training yesterday because he’s got a tight hamstring. 

“What we can’t do is risk Ryan because Max Mata is going away on international duty. Nohan Kenneh is going away on international duty. 

“We are struggling at the moment with the injuries. But we should hopefully have Morgan Feeney back in the group sometime very soon. 

“Whoever gets the opportunity to play on Saturday, they have got to go out and really put in a performance like that out of possession. 

“But then when we get the ball we need to be more cut-throat, especially in the areas in and around the opposition’s box.” 

On our attacking threat against Bolton: 

“We had good chances tonight. Bolton have had two shots on goal and they have scored two goals. 

“We have had three or four opportunities on their goal and not scored. 

You have to understand the context behind it (the goal record). 

“The context behind it is up to that point everything is really good. 

“My challenge now - I stand here in front of you every game – the players need to take responsibility. 

“They are the ones who are on the pitch and when they get those moments they have got to score. 

“We know they can. We got three goals here three days ago.  

It’s obviously difficult when you don’t score goals and you lose games. But you also have to understand that in the building right now we have two fit number nines. 

That’s Dan Udoh and Max Mata. That is where we are. Will Ryan Bowman be fit for the weekend? There is hope for that. 

“But then you lose Max Mata after the Reading game because he goes away on international duty. 

I’m not going to stand here and whinge and moan about it. I’m just going to give you the facts. 

“That is where we are at this moment in time. We have got to continue to work as hard as we possibly can with the players we have because we know they can score goals. You saw that here on Saturday.”

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