Paul Simpson spoke following his side’s defeat at home to Blackpool.
“What a horrific start to make to the game, 21 seconds and your conceding a goal like that.
“It was a tough first-half, the conditions made it really tricky.
“What I will say, credit to the players, they stuck at it, they hung on in there, especially first-half when we were struggling against the wind.
“We had to just try and contain it a little bit because they were causing problems with the way that they were playing out.
“I thought second-half, we had a real good go at it. Fantastic defending from their lad on the line when he clears Luke Armstrong’s header. Apart from that, we haven’t really created a hell of a lot.
“Massively frustrating game, another game where we’ve conceded and lost by a single goal.
“Really disappointing, a lot of things have tested us today. Losing Jack Robinson to what looks like a nasty injury after about 15 minutes.
“Jayden [Harris] came in, and although he had a few loose touches, I thought he worked his socks off and tried to do the right things.
“We’ve got Harrison Neal and Jon Mellish, who are both really struggling from whacks in the first-half, but they had to just carry on. I think credit to the pair of them, that shows the attitude and desire to try and help, to try and do a job for us.
“There’s lots of disappointment, but also we have to give credit to the players for the way they stuck at it, even though the quality wasn’t there.
“I think when you look at the likes of Dembele in midfield and Lavery up front and Beesley, who are real handfuls, at 20 seconds in to go 1-0 down, you think this could be bad.
“As I say, credit to the players, they hung in there first-half especially. Second-half, they were on the back foot, they were the ones who were getting a bit nervous.
“We just didn’t have that quality to be able to get a goal, to be able to get something out of it, so as I say, another disappointing game in front of our home fans.”
Speaking on the second-half, Simmo said: “We didn’t create any chances. A couple of sort of snap shots which went over the bar. As I say, the corner where Luke Armstrong gets across the near post and gets a flick on and it’s good defending.
“We have to be better, we have to be better in terms of how we move the football, how we keep it for each other, but it’s another disappointing one.”
Jack Robinson had to be replaced by Jayden Harris early on due to injury.
The gaffer provided the following update: “We think it doesn’t look a good one, he heard something pop in his ankle so we don’t really know what it is, but there was no way he could go on.
“I thought it was the same thing he got earlier, when he went down on the far touchline, but it was something different.
“He said he went over on his ankle, he heard something pop and it was very painful.
“We’ll get that assessed over the next couple of days, but hopefully it’s not as bad as we think at the moment.”
A positive to take from the contest was that Georgie Kelly completed his first 90 minutes.
“He’s getting fitter, didn’t get a lot of support up there with him today. It showed that he’s a handful, it showed that he can lead that line for us.
“We’ve tried all sorts of things, trying to go 4-3-3, just to see if we can get something in it.”
Fin Back was withdrawn in our midweek fixture away at Cheltenham and was unable to feature today.
“He got a whack on Tuesday night on his calf and it’s still swollen today.
“He wasn’t fit to train yesterday so we had to rule him out.
“He’s still struggling today so we’ve just got to hope that it settles down this week.
“We’ve got to hope that Mells and Harrison Neal are okay because we’re very short on bodies.”
After signing his third-year scholarship earlier in the week, 17-year-old defender Josh O’Brien was named on the bench.
“It’s a really good experience for him.
“I felt it wasn’t the right thing to put players back in to the squad who’s just returned from the little discipline issue.
“They are available for selection, but I just felt it wasn’t right to do it this weekend.
“We’ll wait and see what comes over the next week.”
Speaking on wanting to win our final home fixture for the Blues’ supporters, Simpson said: “We’re all desperate and we can only apologise for not being able to give them enough.
“I think there is a desire in there to do it, we wanted to try and get two wins on the trot because we got a good result on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t to be, we were caused problems by a good passing Blackpool team first-half.
“We were struggling to deal with their number 8’s, their midfielders dropping into pockets and people like Dembele and balls up to Beesley.
“Next weekend, we’ve got to try and do everything we possibly can to try and finish our home season with a victory for our home fans.”
“It was a tough first-half, the conditions made it really tricky.
“What I will say, credit to the players, they stuck at it, they hung on in there, especially first-half when we were struggling against the wind.
“We had to just try and contain it a little bit because they were causing problems with the way that they were playing out.
“I thought second-half, we had a real good go at it. Fantastic defending from their lad on the line when he clears Luke Armstrong’s header. Apart from that, we haven’t really created a hell of a lot.
“Massively frustrating game, another game where we’ve conceded and lost by a single goal.
“Really disappointing, a lot of things have tested us today. Losing Jack Robinson to what looks like a nasty injury after about 15 minutes.
“Jayden [Harris] came in, and although he had a few loose touches, I thought he worked his socks off and tried to do the right things.
“We’ve got Harrison Neal and Jon Mellish, who are both really struggling from whacks in the first-half, but they had to just carry on. I think credit to the pair of them, that shows the attitude and desire to try and help, to try and do a job for us.
“There’s lots of disappointment, but also we have to give credit to the players for the way they stuck at it, even though the quality wasn’t there.
“I think when you look at the likes of Dembele in midfield and Lavery up front and Beesley, who are real handfuls, at 20 seconds in to go 1-0 down, you think this could be bad.
“As I say, credit to the players, they hung in there first-half especially. Second-half, they were on the back foot, they were the ones who were getting a bit nervous.
“We just didn’t have that quality to be able to get a goal, to be able to get something out of it, so as I say, another disappointing game in front of our home fans.”
Speaking on the second-half, Simmo said: “We didn’t create any chances. A couple of sort of snap shots which went over the bar. As I say, the corner where Luke Armstrong gets across the near post and gets a flick on and it’s good defending.
“We have to be better, we have to be better in terms of how we move the football, how we keep it for each other, but it’s another disappointing one.”
Jack Robinson had to be replaced by Jayden Harris early on due to injury.
The gaffer provided the following update: “We think it doesn’t look a good one, he heard something pop in his ankle so we don’t really know what it is, but there was no way he could go on.
“I thought it was the same thing he got earlier, when he went down on the far touchline, but it was something different.
“He said he went over on his ankle, he heard something pop and it was very painful.
“We’ll get that assessed over the next couple of days, but hopefully it’s not as bad as we think at the moment.”
A positive to take from the contest was that Georgie Kelly completed his first 90 minutes.
“He’s getting fitter, didn’t get a lot of support up there with him today. It showed that he’s a handful, it showed that he can lead that line for us.
“We’ve tried all sorts of things, trying to go 4-3-3, just to see if we can get something in it.”
Fin Back was withdrawn in our midweek fixture away at Cheltenham and was unable to feature today.
“He got a whack on Tuesday night on his calf and it’s still swollen today.
“He wasn’t fit to train yesterday so we had to rule him out.
“He’s still struggling today so we’ve just got to hope that it settles down this week.
“We’ve got to hope that Mells and Harrison Neal are okay because we’re very short on bodies.”
After signing his third-year scholarship earlier in the week, 17-year-old defender Josh O’Brien was named on the bench.
“It’s a really good experience for him.
“I felt it wasn’t the right thing to put players back in to the squad who’s just returned from the little discipline issue.
“They are available for selection, but I just felt it wasn’t right to do it this weekend.
“We’ll wait and see what comes over the next week.”
Speaking on wanting to win our final home fixture for the Blues’ supporters, Simpson said: “We’re all desperate and we can only apologise for not being able to give them enough.
“I think there is a desire in there to do it, we wanted to try and get two wins on the trot because we got a good result on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t to be, we were caused problems by a good passing Blackpool team first-half.
“We were struggling to deal with their number 8’s, their midfielders dropping into pockets and people like Dembele and balls up to Beesley.
“Next weekend, we’ve got to try and do everything we possibly can to try and finish our home season with a victory for our home fans.”