Head coach Joey Barton spoke to the press after his side’s 1-0 win over Shrewsbury Town at Highbury on Tuesday night.
Barton saw his side win their second game in a row as a first half Ched Evans goal was the difference between the two sides in a tight Sky Bet League One encounter.
After the game, this is what Joey had to say:
On the game…
“I think we had to defend properly as we did on Saturday at Gillingham and it’s really pleasing to come out the week with six points and two clean sheets.
“It would’ve been more straight forward had we found that second goal. You have to give them credit, I thought the keeper made a great save from Paddy Madden in the first half and made an even better one from Callum Camps coming late in the second half.
“During the course of the season, I always remember one-nil being a good score when I played certainly when you were trying to climb up the league table but to back that up off the back of an excellent team grinding performance at Gillingham at the weekend was pleasing.
“We’ll definitely pass the ball a lot better than we did in the second half and I think we’ll be a little bit more clinical as well with our chances but we came here tonight and managed to take them so job is done.”
On the defence…
“I thought Callum Connolly was outstanding, he really was. Every single aerial ball he was up there, and I thought Tom Edwards just to the side of him did a really good job. He’s a dangerous player [Daniel] Udoh, and his pace and his directness getting in behind and I thought Tom had to marshal him really well.
“Then when they did get beyond our defence Jayson Leutwiler was there to make the save, I think he saved it with his head, not his hands but whichever way he keeps it out the net, that’s important. We would’ve been disappointed had we drawn the game, as I said to the boys there, we played a lot better last Tuesday night at Accrington and didn’t get any points.”
An update on Jay Matete…
“He’s disappointed, he’d never want to leave the pitch, but we could not take the chance as it could’ve got worse. We’re hoping it's days rather than weeks because Jay’s been excellent and just got in the first team.
“He was playing well in the game and gave a great account of himself on Saturday so hopefully it’s just days, but he’s been taken off with his longevity in mind.
“The last thing you want to do with a young player keeps pushing them and he makes a minor injury a lot worse. We’ll get him scanned, see how he is and hopefully, it’s not too bad.”