Manager Keith Hill has offered an honest assessment of his side’s 4-1 defeat to Peterborough United at the Crown Oil Arena…
“There’s always disappointment in defeat but I’m reasonably happy with the performance. I go back to when I was a player and a manager once said ‘while we’re playing all the football, they’re scoring all the goals’.
“Ultimately, we forgot about one key component of any match, which is defending – there were individual mistakes. If you give those opportunities to Peterborough’s wealthy strikers/ attacking midfielders, then you’ll get punished. We can’t be as compassionate or as charitable as we were today.
“With respect to the way I want to play with the ball and regains, then certain parts of the play were better today than they were at Burton Albion, but the overall the 90 minutes was awash with individual defensive mistakes, and that’s what cost us.
“But instead of getting emotionally angry about it, you’ve got to assess and evaluate, and you’ve got realise that it’s only game two. As I said last week, there’s plenty for us to work on, which shouldn’t kill our confidence.”
He continued: “You can’t make the mistakes we made today and win games against very good sides like Peterborough. Peterborough aren’t a League One, let’s make sure we retain our League One status side, they’re an excellent side.
“I thought for a good percent of that game, we were very good in possession, but from a defensive responsibility we were rubbish. You could argue that Peterborough’s tactics were to sit and pick and counter-attack, well we practised being ready for the counter-attack. But I’ve just said to Josh – ‘last week I remember you making lots of saves in the game against Burton where we won the game, today I remember you making one outstanding save against Dembele in the first half’. I can’t remember Josh making too many saves today, whereas I can remember him making a lot last week, and that is what I’m stressing.
“I’m reasonably happy with two thirds but I’m not happy with the individual defensive lack of responsibility in winning duals and having the courage to win those duals. I’ve just reminded the players that it’s important we win those duals in key areas of the pitch, which is both penalty boxes.
“I think we have enough chances to score today, while we were very lapse in concentration and in marking in our penalty box, which is going to cost us, especially with the quality of the opponent striker. We can’t be so switched off.
“But it’s a great reminder. I’m stood here, although really disappointed with the result, not too despondent, and but more than happy with what we’re trying to achieve.”
Want to access more words from the Gaffer? Click HERE.