The United squad was without a number of players on Tuesday night as manager Paul Simpson looked after a few niggles and complaints, with others rested as his assertion that everybody will be needed was on full display.
“We had to make changes at the start because I wasn’t prepared to risk Paul Huntington with a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday at his stage of his career,” he explained. “It’s important that he’s right for the weekend.
“We were advised by Forest not to use Fin Back for Saturday-Tuesday games because he’s still early in his rehab.
“Owen Moxon declared himself unfit on Monday with a dead leg, so he wasn’t available. Callum Guy had tonsilitis last week and did a lot of work on Saturday, so I felt that I needed to give him a little bit of a rest.
“Unfortunately I needed to bring him back into it in the second half just to try to help us get on the ball and playing a bit. That’s what he did, but unfortunately we didn’t get anything from it.”
The changes during the break saw four players enter the free as the Blues went in search of an equaliser.
“We had to do something,” he commented. “I just didn’t think it was good enough. I felt the body language was really poor from us from the moment we went a goal down. That’s not us. That isn’t what we’re about. That’s a big disappointment.
“I picked what I felt was a strong side to come here, the changes were forced – maybe not Callum, who had tonsilitis last week after the Dundee United game, so he was off until the Thursday, and put a real good shift in on Saturday, so I felt I needed to protect him.
“I had to make those changes but I wanted to try and keep it consistent because I wanted to win this game, I wanted to be in the second round of the cup, regardless of the things supporters behind me were shouting.
“I definitely wanted to be in the next round. So I’m massively disappointed in the way we’ve gone about it, massively disappointed in the way we were in the final third, from a group of players who are much better than they’ve shown. We’ve got to go again.”
“I hope that Mox will be fine for the weekend,” he concluded. “It was a dead leg, and I’m hoping he will be fit, we’re just going to have to wait and see.
“He tried to train on Monday morning but he wasn’t right. We had to leave him back home, but I’d hope within a couple of days, particularly with the fact he played on through it last Saturday, that it will settle down.”