We spoke to Paul Simpson following defeat to Rochdale.
During pre-season, results aren’t the primary focus, but Simpson explained they are still important: "Obviously, you don't get anything for it but results are important because you have to get into the habit of winning games.
"It was about the performance today. Compared to the levels that they've had over pre-season so far, we weren't at it today. And that's what pre-season is about.
“Hopefully, it's a case of getting it out of the system. But we weren't good enough on the ball today. We weren't brave enough to go and press and get up against them.
“And I'll give them credit. I thought they played very well. I thought they were a good football side.
“It wasn't just about us being really poor. They actually played well as well. We've got to deal with it and there are things to learn from. But it certainly wasn't what I was hoping for today.”
We then followed up by asking if Simpson perhaps felt that they underestimated their opposition, he responded by saying:
“No, not at all. There's no chance it was a case of that.
“We just didn't pass the ball very well. Let's be honest, we aren't good enough to underestimate anybody. We have to be right at it for every game, regardless of it being pre-season or not.
“But, you know, it's pre-season. We accept that players are going to be a bit leggy. They're going to look a bit tired at times.
“I expected it last week at St Mirren, but they weren't. They were sharp. Today, we weren't.
"That's in and out of possession. The biggest disappointment was I thought we gave the ball away really cheaply today. We didn't look like we had any real passing options.
“There has to be a desire to work hard to get on the ball. So, there's things there that we need to improve on. We know that.
“Like I keep saying, that's what pre-season is about. If you're going to have a bad performance, you'd rather get it today than at Gillingham.
"But I'm quite sure over the season we'll have other bad performances. We've just got to make sure that we learn from it. We'll go away, we'll look at it, and we'll see where we went wrong.
“But my impression from watching it live is that we just didn't pass the ball very well. We didn't get into those forward areas and put enough balls into the box for two strikers like Georgie Kelly and Charlie Wyke. We had one in the first minute from Archie Davis, which was a really good cross we didn't get on the end of.
“I think the next one was just before half-time where Cammy Harper crosses one from 40 yards out, which is not what we want. So there's areas there that we need to keep working on and we need to keep improving on.”
Ethan Robson, Aaron Hayden and Terell Thomas were all subbed due to injury today, the gaffer explained: "Ethan is the concern. He's felt his hamstring. We don't know how bad it is, but he felt his hamstring. He just did a bit of an unusual bit of a skipping off both feet and tried to hook a ball on, and he just felt it.
“Sometimes these ones happen with strange ones. I remember a couple of seasons ago, Tobi Sho-Silva pulled his hamstring just doing a back heel in training. So I'm hoping it's not a bad one, but we'll wait and see.
“Aaron Hayden came off because he just got stamped on just above his eye, so he came off. He just had a cut that we probably need to get stitched. I think he's in there now with the medical people, just seeing what needs to happen.
“So that's all that was. And Terrell's was just cramp, so there's no problem with them. We've just got to keep working and over the next couple of weeks get them right up to speed.”
The gaffer also provided an update on Callum Guy, Anton Dudik and Jack Robinson.
“Anton and Robbo have been out on the grass this week," he said. "They've had their first taste of grass sessions and they both seem to be progressing really well.
“Anton will probably be fit sooner. Jack Robinson's got a bit longer to do because of the length of time he's been out.
"Callum's had a sickness and diarrhoea bug this week. He came in on Monday and looked like death warmed up, so we sent him home. He tried to come in on Thursday, but he was sent home again because he wasn't right and we can't have him around the rest of the group when there's some sort of bug going around. So he's not had a good week, but hopefully he'll be back in on Monday and he'll have got rid of this bug and he'll be ready to go again.”
Ahead of the trip to Gateshead on Tuesday, we asked Simpson how the team could look for that game: "We'll wait and see. It will be a case of the lads who didn't start today starting, and then we'll see how everyone else is.
“Maybe the young boys might come back into it. With Jake Allan, Aran Fitzpatrick and Sam Hetherington, we decided they needed to get as close to 90 as they could, so they went to Milnthorpe today to be part of the youth team because we need to get everybody the minutes.
"Today was about getting 60 or 70 minutes, except for Georgie Kelly, who was always going to come off at half-time, so he's come through that unscathed.
“We'll count the heads and we'll see how everybody is ahead of Tuesday, but it's pre-season, we're still building towards the Gillingham game. We've got Gateshead and we've got Stockport and it's then full steam ahead for the first league game."
