Manager Chris Beech spoke more about Saturday’s home victory over Southend as he looked back at was a good performance on the home turf.
“What we talked about at the press conference on Thursday was that it was going to be beautiful weather, a fantastic pitch and that I just wanted the players to relax,” he said. “Of course, scoring goals helps you to relax and once we got two goals in front we played some really good football.
“We wanted to create chances, hopefully take them, and that came into why I put attacking players on, to score more goals. Your front men getting goals is vital, it’s why they’re out there. It can be something on your shoulder, they’ve got it out of their system, so it’s great.”
As soon as the strike from Omari Patrick found the back of the net there was a real sense of tension having lifted, with the hosts quickly doubling their lead courtesy of another fine finish from Josh Kayode.
“It’s a boost when you score first, and something has to be an ice breaker, doesn’t it?” he told us. “I’ve tried my best to do it this week, and I’ve tried my best to do it since we started, but it was brilliant how they got their noses in front.
“It all comes out of hard work and once JJ and Omari started sprinting a little bit more they supported Gime, who I thought was excellent. Those three gave us space to dominate the midfield and it gave Callum Guy and Dean Furman the chance to do what they do.
“They dominated both on and off the ball, they pressed and they put a real shift in for us. If there’s any criticism at all it’s that we should have scored more goals, especially from set plays.”
“It’s funny with Omari’s goal, because in training on Friday he was looking at me and asking me why I was telling him to wait outside the box for set pieces and free kicks,” he explained.
“He’s been practicing all summer at shooting from outside the box, and he’s been sending me videos when we were all in lockdown. I told him to go and do what he’s very good at and, yes, it took a nick, but the power took it past the keeper.
“I thought their keeper was excellent, he played really well, and he made some great saves off our long throws. My criticism of that is that we didn’t capitalise off the second ball when it was there for us. I’ve no idea how Nick didn’t score with his header, I’ll have to look at that.
“I’m really pleased with the clean sheet and I’m really happy for the club and the supporters because they’ve waited a long time to come back and we don’t know, do we, if we can still go ahead with games like this because of what’s happening around the country.
“Tomorrow [Sunday] is the last chance I get to go and see my mum and dad before more restrictions come in. It just seems all a little bit strange, but at least we shared it with people here.
“It helped us, our supporters were fantastic, they really were. I mentioned ice breaking earlier but the crowd were very supportive of what we were doing and that’s because they enjoy hard work.
“They love to see us tackling and Mellish’s tackle set a tone, as did the one from Tanner. We had Dean Furman pressing, Callum Guy winning headers and Mellish doing the same. These things are so important, and people don’t always see the unnoticed work that players do. It’s the type of stuff that makes the team become really effective and we were good as a unit.”
Defensively, the overall performance was backed up by a clean sheet.
“We spoke earlier in the week about giving gifts away, and we didn’t do that in this game,” he commented. “If you keep the ball you get confidence and it allows growth.
“There was no difference between us and Cambridge, and definitely no difference between us and Oldham, but we gave them gifts.
“Our goals on Saturday, we had to earn them. We got our lead by earning them. Southend didn’t actually give us the goals, we had to create them, so it’s pleasing that we did things properly and that we supported each other in our aims.
“There will have been an easing of tension but it’s fine, its football. All I keep saying is that if you work hard, do the right things and present yourself correctly you’ll be fine.
“The team has connection to honesty, which I know our fans will connect to. The group of people we’ve got working for us is very good, and what we want to do is enhance that youth and spirit, which in turn brings out more talent to support our cause.
“It’s vital that while we’re doing this, and I’ve just said to the players, we’ve had an excellent clean sheet and a very good home win. We’re still working hard to build and as we get better we need to keep respecting the winning traits.
“You can still improve while you’re winning. You don’t have to win to show improvement.”
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