We spoke to Mike Williamson following our defeat to Chesterfield.
He began by saying:
“Well, I thought for the majority of the game it was open. I thought in terms of the possession and the box entries and expected goal, I think we reflect quite well.
“I think ultimately the lack of conviction and then when we're committed bodies up top, then we get caught on the break which is hard to stomach. But I think the performance wasn't, how to put it, I thought that the result obviously hurts and then the manner of in the last half an hour wasn’t good.
“But actually I think when you look at the margins in it, it was tighter than you think.”
Both Chesterfield goals came as a result of individual errors, Mike reflected:
“It's hard of course when that happens, yeah. I think like I say in the first half I think we get into two or three really good attacking situations and we don't capitalise and then on the flip side we make one or two bad decisions out of possession and we get punished. And that's where we are at the minute and what I'm trying to say is the performance I don't think was as bad as it was the result.
“I think we're hurting right now and the lads, I feel as though you can see them giving everything. But we're getting punished and it's a lack of quality in those moments we need it.”
After making a change at half-time, Mike talked on the second-half:
“I thought we did have momentum, I thought second half we came out and I thought we had four or five occasions where we ended their box and I thought we created chances and again you look at our xG, we've been punished, we've been punished by a couple of moments of quality and we lacked it.
“So I think that coming out in the second half I did feel as though we were in the ascendancy until we get hit with the second goal.”
The Blues have been solid at the back of late, but struggled defensively today. We asked Mike what he put that down to, he said:
“A willingness to want to score goals. So obviously we concede and then we've got to try and stick to the game plan but we know ultimately we need to commit bodies and players forward to try and get a goal ourselves and then we got caught short at the back.
“I thought the energy that the lads tried to power there, the determination, I thought the belief potentially could question when we get into that final third but it came down to those moments and we were found wanting.”
Mike made a few changes to the side, including positional tweaks, with Dom Sadi playing from the right and Tyler Burey from the left, he explained those choices:
“Well I thought that when Dom has played on the right he opens the game up and he brings the middle of the pitch in and we've been quite creative when he's been in that position and yeah the same with Tyler we think, we identified that we thought that their right side over compensates and we could create some 1v1s which we did see but again we're just yet to capitalise when we get in those positions.”
On needing that belief to score goals, Mike said:
“I think it's one of the biggest components in football, I think when you're confident and you're not looking and you're playing with fear I think you're transformed as a football team and as a player but the only way we get that into our game is by working hard and making sure that we stick together and that group certainly will do that.”
Dylan McGeouch came off, we asked Mike about his condition:
“I think he said he felt something so obviously it's his first game in a while and we have to be careful but yeah we'll have to wait and see.”
On the condition of others, he said:
“Again yeah JJ was fine, didn't really want to take him off but in terms of game time we had to be careful with him as far as I know everyone else is fine.”
On Kadeem Harris, who wasn’t in the squad, Mike explained:
“Hopefully Kads will be back soon, I think fingers crossed he'll be training at the back end of the week.”
And on Harry Lewis, he added:
“He broke his finger in training so that'll be a couple of weeks until he can come back.”
On Jude Smith, and Thomas Randall’s inclusion:
“Yes yeah I know he's been out for a few weeks now with a back issue.
“Great experience for Thomas, he's someone that he trains every day and yeah he's had good experience in the Youth Cup and puts a good performance in there and yeah deserved his appearance on the bench.”
On the busy upcoming schedule, Mike finished by saying:
“Christmas will define where we're looking. When we come out at the end of it we've got a big squad so we need to utilise that and we've got to dust ourselves off today and make sure that we get a win.”
