Head Coach Simon Grayson spoke to the press after Saturday afternoon’s 1-0 loss to Portsmouth at Highbury.
After a dominant first-half performance, the Cod Army fell behind in the second half when Lee Brown fired home for the visitors. Town fought back but it wasn’t to be on the opening day of the season.
Here’s what Grayson had to say:
On the game…
“I’m hugely disappointed to lose on the opening game of the season like the players and I think the supporters will be because, in the first half, I thought we were the dominant team. We created lots of good chances. We just weren’t ruthless enough to get a couple of goals advantage that we thoroughly deserved.
“When the game is tight, there’s always the opportunity for the opposition to get back into it and unfortunately, we’ve come on the wrong end of the result where the performance warranted a more positive one.
“We wanted to start the game brightly and we did that, we had Portsmouth on the back foot and the front three worked really well. The midfield players were getting on the ball, winning second phases and we really limited them to few opportunities.”
On the team…
“I thought he (Callum Morton) did really well. He’s got plenty of energy about him, good quality, and showed glimpses of why we signed him. He’s settled in really well into the group and we’ve got good competition for places and as you saw from the bench today, it’s probably the strongest bench we’ve had in a long time since I’ve been at the football club.
“I think there is a real tight group here, they all get on well with each other, they all have worked extremely hard in pre-season, and they all know their jobs and responsibilities that they need on the pitch, and we saw that again today.
“I thought we were very organised and well-structured but just didn’t show the ruthlessness that we needed in and around the 18-yard box which is the big difference between winning and losing games.”