Head coach Scott Brown spoke to the club after his side came back from behind to draw with Morecambe in this afternoon’s Lancashire Derby.
After Arthur Gnahoua opened the scoring in the first half, all eyes were firmly set on bringing the game back to level terms and that’s exactly what happened as full-back Danny Andrew struck the ball with his left-foot from 12-yards into the top corner to ensure the game would one apiece.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say after the game:
On the overall performance…
“After our first-half performance, I would say a point apiece is a fair result; I thought we controlled the game, but they forced us into mistakes. When they did, they created chances as they hit the post and scored a goal form us being sloppy.
“I understand that they want to try and go forwards to score goals because Morecambe were sat deep but, at the same time, we need to play a bit smarter and be more aware of the space around us.
“We didn’t do anything in the final third; there wasn’t any forward passes and no high-intensity press. I understand that it’s 30 degrees today, but it’s that urgency with the ball and the speed of movement as well and we didn’t have that in the first half.
“We made a couple of changes at the break and they added some urgency to the play and we played more like ourselves in the last 20 minutes. We were pressing higher up the park, forcing mistakes, and kept winning the ball back and continued to attack."
On the squad’s mentality to come back…
“With the fitness levels, it shows that we’ve worked them hard in pre-season and that it’s paying off now. At the same time, we’re not happy drawing games, but it’s a huge point for us at the same time, especially being 1-0 down.
“It shows the lads mentality that they still want to come and create chances, but it’s more about having that understanding of our shape and structure when we’ve got the ball and when we haven’t.
“We gave the goal up, it was sloppy as they worked the ball through the middle then played it out wide and had a free shot on the edge of the box which is not like us, we are normally quite switched on there. We’ve got to take that on the chin and find out the reasons why we we’re sitting there so we need to go back now and analyse as much as we can.”
On the fans and moving forwards…
“Our fans were exceptional again, coming down, dancing and singing. They have supported us since we came in and we’d have liked to get an extra goal at the end to give them something back but it wasn’t meant to be.
“We’ve just got to rest and recover as the lads have worked extremely hard. It’s been 30 degrees here and it not that often that it’s this hot so fatigue kicked in for a lot of the lads and a few of them came over with cramp.
“They are strong though and we have a good squad so we have the option to rotate a few players around for the next game. There are those who played against Wigan, which came off the bench this afternoon, and did extremely well so there will be chances for them to feature.”