We spoke to Mike Williamson following our draw with Harrogate.
Mike began with his overview of the game, saying: “We asked for a reaction after last week and I certainly thought we got that. The boys gave everything.
“You could see the intent and the intensity. I can't fault them. They gave everything. You could see the desire to want to win and get the ball in the back of the net.
“We've got to keep understanding that it's the concentration because I think every time we got hurt it was through our lack of concentration. But the bottom line is the stats and the amount that we entered their box and the amount of chances we had. We should win comfortably but it's not meant to be.
“We've got to take so much positivity from that because at the minute it's feeling frustrating and disappointing but actually if you zoom out, you take the emotion away, It was a really good performance.”
Despite dominating the ball, we didn’t really force the 'keeper into too many difficult saves, we asked Mike about working on that with the lads, he said: “We're always working on that. I think you never stop working on that side of it.
“It's difficult to criticise the boys when they've just emptied their tank and outlaid so much energy and emotion on the field. But yeah, of course, when you look into that, we feel hard done by.”
The Blues dominated early on, but fell behind against the run of the play. Mike spoke about the positive response, saying: “That's where we're at. We know we've got to earn every foul, every kick, every forward pass.
"We've got to cover every blade of grass and then still things will go against us. And that's the nature of the beast and the nature of where we are. But the boys showed a lot of resilience, a lot of character.
On Luke Armstrong’s goal, Mike said: "I think that was a nice one. He'd missed a couple of chances before that. His work rate is phenomenal and he deserves it.”
On the second-half, Mike stated: “I thought we did create chances.
“I thought maybe we didn't hit the target and we didn't make the 'keeper work enough. But I thought obviously Dom cut in a few times. [Harrison] Biggins had a couple of chances.
“Charlie [Wyke] came on, was an absolute handful. But we weren't clinical."
Dominic Sadi took up a right-wing-back position today having never played there previously.
“Firstly, I did that because he's brave and he gives everything 100%. So we knew what we're going to get when you put him somewhere. Secondly, we thought that's him coming off the line and causing problems and his quality in the final third, which I mean in the first few minutes, he made an impact.
“We know it's not his natural place, but he's got the quality where we want him on the pitch.”
On Archie Davies’ injury, Mike said: “I think it's looking as though he will need an operation. So it's more than likely that he will, but I've not had that confirmed yet.”
Taylor Charters and Callum Guy managed around an hour, Mike spoke about their return: “They continued where they left off last week. They came in and settled the game down and yeah, this week I think we dominated from start to finish really. We probably had a couple of five minute spells there where we had to defend.
“Having Callum in there and pulling the strings, it makes us tick.”
Ethan Robson made his debut as well, replacing Callum Guy, Mike said: “Ethan is brilliant. He's just bought into everything.
“He wants to come and he wants to make an impact. He's been frustrated, but I thought he came on and he was brilliant today. So hopefully we can just keep building with him."
Mike then spoke on new signing, Tyler Burey: “He's got pace. So obviously last week it was a difficult game because I didn't feel as though we had enough threat in behind. Today he came on, he had a couple of moments, but he hasn't had much game time.
“So it will come, the sharpness will come.”
Finally, on the 8,000+ home fans inside BP, Mike said: "We've got to build off that performance and continue, try and build the consistency because those are the performances that we're talking about, giving the fans something to get behind. And I thought they did.
"I thought from start to finish, the boys were excellent. They dominated, they controlled and yeah, on another day we win comfortably.”
