Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us after Saturday's home game against Portsmouth.
“It was a better performance in terms of football that we played,” he said. “I asked the players to be braver on the ball and trust each other to pass the ball, and I thought there were periods in the game where we did that against a good side. They’re the best side in the league so far.
“I thought we got into some good areas, but we haven’t had the quality in the final third to be able to work the goalkeeper and that is the story of our season. For all the times we played, kept the ball and got into those good areas, I can’t think of many opportunities where I felt as though we should have scored which is the disappointing thing.
“It shows the difference in the levels when you look at their goal. The lad plays the pass through which takes our centre back and full back out of the game. It’s that bit of quality which is the difference, especially at this level, which we’ve certainly found lacking.
“I do think we have to take the positives out of it in the fact that we’ve shown a bit more control and been braver to pass the ball. Ultimately we’re disappointed because we’ve taken nothing again.”
“I thought we were the better team in terms of how we started the game,” he continued. “I’m not going to hide behind that though, we didn’t create enough when we got into those good areas. Portsmouth came out in the second half and had a bit more about them and got in behind us a couple of times. We defended our box well but it’s the quality that’s let us down.
“We got ourselves into a good position when Jon [Mellish] went down the right hand side and put the cross in. We weren’t able to pick things up on the edge of the box when it broke out and even the second phase of it, I thought Ben Barclay was in a good position. He intercepted it and it looked like we were in a good area, but we played a bad pass and made a wrong decision which allows them to break on us in the blink of an eye. We were on the attack but got done on the transition and we end up losing the game 1-0.
“Everybody is really keen to get a win,” he said. “We’re pushing players forward trying to get a win, but you’ve still got to make sure you keep the back door closed and the defence is in good areas to be able to deal with it. It wasn’t for their goal. Fin Back was still caught high up the pitch from the throw in, Jon Mellish was getting the cross in wide on the right and Josh Vela is getting in the box to try and score. We didn’t have that security behind the ball and that’s what has caught us out.
“I still think for the second part of it where Ben was in a good area, we looked like we’d nullified that transition. It’s the second part again where we did ourselves. There are positives to take out of it, people will probably think I’m clutching at straws saying that but I really do think there were positives today. It was a better football performance from us that sadly has got nothing.
“We kept going at the end and kept pushing players forward. We were trying to do the right things, it wasn’t a case of just lumping it in and going gung-ho, we were a bit patient with the ball and we were trying to find the opportunities. It’s the last little bit, you can do all of the right stuff between the boxes but when you get to the final third you have to be able to produce something.
“Unfortunately we haven’t produced enough. We’ve got to stick with it and stay in there. We’ve got two good games this week to get good points from, and that’s the only thing we can think about now. We’ve got to dust ourselves down, recover as well as we can, and be ready to go on Tuesday night.
“It’s blatantly obvious that we need to start winning games of football. This situation isn’t what anybody wants, we need to try and change it as quickly as possible. We need to get a bit of luck maybe to help us along the way. We’ll keep going, and if we show the same enthusiasm to play like we have today and a bit of desire, who knows, maybe things will turn for us.”
