Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us after today’s draw against Fleetwood.
“It was a much improved performance from the Cheltenham game, without a doubt,” he said. “I think we probably deserved more than just one point out of it so that’s a bit of a disappointment, but I’ve got to say I’m really satisfied with the way the players have gone about it.
“It was a massive improvement. Although let’s be honest, it didn’t take a lot to improve on Saturday. I’m disappointed we didn’t get more than just one point out of it but it’s one more point than we started with, and it’s a level of performance that I’m much happier with and I just think we have to build on it now.
“Particularly the starting 11, because when you look at it it’s probably the youngest average age in a team I’ve put out since I’ve been here. I thought they gave us energy and they had a real desire about them. It’s just a pity we weren’t able to finish off those chances that we did create today.
“I thought we passed the ball quite well on a bit of a tricky surface. We worked and competed well, we did all of the things we would want to do to get ourselves in the lead.
“I’m disappointed with the goal we’ve conceded, I think we could have worked harder to stop it coming in from our right-hand side. Stockley has made a career of getting across the near post and scoring goals like that.
“We had some good chances in the second half, Ryan Edmondson had two of them, and if he’d have finished one of them it would have been well deserved after the way he worked through the game.
“He showed great energy, that’s the big thing, that’s what I want him to do, and to stay down the middle of the pitch and affect it. The chances that he got came because he was in the middle of the pitch.
“The one Sean pulled back, even working the goalkeeper, he was close enough to do it. It’s a tough job when you’re playing as a striker up against two centre backs. I thought he gave us a real good platform. Hopefully he’ll get even stronger for that.”
Captain Sam Lavelle was replaced by Ben Barclay in stoppage time: “He got a whack on his eye and I think Chris [Brunskill] glued it on the pitch.
“The fourth official told me there was a minute and 20 seconds left and he would have had to stay off for 30 seconds. I wasn’t prepared to take that chance of playing that much of the time remaining with ten men and Ben was ready and we got him on and thankfully it wasn’t an issue.
“I think everyone else has come through it ok, there are obviously some tired legs but we made five changes coming into the game today just to freshen it up, and also because other players have deserved an opportunity.
“We’ll see how everybody is tomorrow when we’re back in and hopefully we’ll be able to pick a team at Wigan who will be able to give us energy again.”