Mark Hughes spoke to CUTV following the defeat to AFC Wimbledon.
He began: “Well, a terrible start, obviously completely the opposite of what we'd hoped for in terms of starting the game. It changes the shape of our game, really, in terms of what we were trying to do. A similar situation for the second one, in all fairness, conceded once again very quickly after the break.
“So, yeah, disappointing. Scored a great goal, I thought, Matty Dennis at the far post. Kadeem [Harris] did great to get the ball over, but we didn't create enough of those opportunities really.
“I just felt we got stuck between two schools of thought today. I felt we could attack behind their wing-backs today. That's why we went with the back four to try and release our full-backs and get them higher, which up to a point I thought that worked well.
“But I just think we didn't move the ball quick enough across the pitch just to isolate people on the opposite side of the pitch.
“Second half, we made a few changes, got a little bit more energy and pegged them back a bit.
But sometimes you've just got to go a little bit more basic and put balls in areas, turn people around and then see what happens.
“Make them make mistakes, too often when we're having set-back balls. Our balls that we're trying to hit into space over the back line of Wimbledon were coming up short and they could deal with them very easily.
“So, yeah, a real disappointment. I felt there was real opportunities today. I don't think they created a great deal in fairness, but when you're two to the good, then you can just sit and manage the game.
“It's what I've talked about myself for a number of weeks now. When you score the first goal, then you can manage the game and you don't have to go gung-ho. When you're chasing the game like we seem to be at the moment, then it's more difficult.
“So, I think we just came up short today. Confidence is a huge thing in football, everybody knows that.
“Today, with the goal we conceded so early, I just thought that was a real blow to us. We were a little bit fragile, maybe, but we've got to shake ourselves out of that. I think a number of them have felt sorry for themselves for quite some time, so you can't have that.
“You've just got to dust yourself down and go again. It's not easy. When things go against you, you've just got to show your character, your personality and dig in and do something about it.
“So, that was the order of the day today.”
Matty Dennis pulled a goal back but it still felt like the Blues struggled to really capitalise, and Wimbledon saw the game out well.
“We needed to just ask a few more questions, but they slowed the game down. Every stoppage in play was slow and deliberate, and that's fine because they're managing the game.
“It's a skill in itself, so you have to accept that, although it's a bit unpalatable when you're actually experiencing it. That's how it is. We just needed to turn some more questions on them.
“I thought we had a number of chances to put good balls in, but we weren't able to produce the likes of the balls that Kadeem produced for the goal. Too often, the goalkeeper was able to come for balls that were in the box without any challenges. So, that's an area we have to markedly improve on.”
After his comment about some players feeling sorry for themselves, we asked Mark to explain that a bit more. He responded:
“A lot of it stems from we're making changes. We're making changes in personnel and sometimes in the way we play.
“Probably today, it's down to me because I made probably two fundamental changes. You hope that they come off and give you something different to cause the opposition, but it probably didn't work.
“So, that probably is on me, but we're still going to try and make things happen.
“Momentum is key when it's starting to go with you, which it was clearly after the goal. You need to maintain that so you can keep players and the opposition under pressure. We've just got to find a way to maintain that momentum.”
Mark Hughes made four changes to the starting line-up, we asked for his thought process on those. He said:
“Well, we looked at how they play and they like to get their wing-backs high, but we just thought there were opportunities if we released our full-backs quickly. Which I thought we did for the most part, but then they started getting over quicker and our passing got slower.
“That lends itself to what we're trying to do. So, that's when you have to change and try something else”
Will Patching and Joe Hugill both missed out on the squad today, Mark explained their absence:
“We've still got a lot of players. Everybody can't play, unfortunately. We've got to make hard choices and that's where we are at the moment. We've just got Georgie Kelly back after a long time out with injuries and he gives us something different.
“So, Joe had to miss out. Will was the same. I've got a lot of players in those areas.
“It would have been hard to take people out of the team and take them off the bench as well. So, yeah, it's just about getting the right mix and the right combination. Today we didn't get that.”
Finally, Mark spoke about the remaining games and the importance of the next two at BP:
“It isn't going to be easy from now until the end of the season. We've just got to give ourselves a chance. Today we didn't give ourselves a chance, unfortunately.
“I always feel the home games are a real opportunity. Today we didn't take it, unfortunately. I felt, as I said, Wimbledon got the best start they could have hoped for and then managed the game. Like I said, we didn't create a great deal, didn't cause too many problems, but didn't have to because we didn't have too much of a threat going the other way.
"It was a poor day in the office.”
