We spoke to Mike Williamson following today’s defeat against AFC Wimbledon.
“It was a really poor performance, there's not much else for me to say,” he admitted. “There's so many things that we need to improve, we've got to accept where we are as a football club from top to bottom, and we knew this coming in.
“The boys are in a very difficult place, they are finding it difficult and it's hard when you're on that football pitch and to take that responsibility, but we've got to find a way. That was unacceptable from top to bottom, for the fans that came all the way down here, travelling miles, hundreds of miles, sacrificing, that was unacceptable. We've got to accept where we are and we've got a lot of work to do.”
There were lots of unforced errors and misplaced passes throughout the game, and we asked Mike about that: “During the first half I don't think we picked up a second ball, won the first contact, we looked nervous, we looked as though we didn't want to play forward and then when we did, we made bad decisions.
“This is collectively, this is me taking responsibility from top to bottom, there is no hiding anything, the standards were so far off it and we've got to make sure that we drive it, but we'll do it together.
“Those boys are hurting in there, they've given everything they possibly can, professional athletes don't go on the field and give less than everything they've got, but sometimes when you're in a bad moment and you feel that pressure, it can look like that you're not giving everything, but I'm promising you they are and we will and again, like I say, we've got so much to face and we will do that.”
“I thought we had a five, ten minute spell of possession in the second half when Callum Guy came on, I thought he calmed everything down, I thought he had that bit of quality to come to a hostile environment like this and not be kind of flustered and obviously he's got a lot of experience in that sense. Until then we didn't, we kept turning over the ball and then when we did have a good passage of play, the decision making let us down. We're in this and there's an honest group of lads there and I know that we've got the personality and the courage to find a way out of it.”
United had one shot on target during the game, and we asked the gaffer what needs to change to improve those stats: “It’s about our belief and our confidence which carries over to conviction. I said to the boys when you're in a bad moment, you've got to find a way for your habits not to change and if they do change, it can only be very minimally because football is a very emotional game, and when you're down the bottom of the league and you feel as if everything's going against you, you've got to find a way of getting yourself out and dragging yourself out, dragging each other out, being there for each other and making sure that there's no self-preservation, we take full responsibility and it starts with me.
“We can only change that by working hard, that's it, we’ll get back in, make sure we look at everything that we can rectify straight away then we've got to show up and we've got to show our real personality and our characters. That's what we've got in the dressing room, it's going to be tough but I know we've got the lads in there and the staff outside, we've got the support network and we'll find our way.”
With a fantastic 792 away fans in attendance, the gaffer’s final word was on their fantastic support: “Their reaction at the end was understandable, they've given a lot and travelled a lot and that was a completely unacceptable performance, we all know as a football club and we're going to do everything we can to change that.”
