Team captain on the weekend fixture
Team captain Paul Thirlwell spoke to us about the disappointing FA Cup exit at the hands of Bournemouth at the weekend.
“We’re very disappointed,” he said “We obviously went into the game feeling optimistic after the way we played last week at Yeovil but for whatever reason it didn’t happen for us.
“We probably gave as good as we got while it was still at 0-0 but we conceded that vital first goal. The second one came quickly after that and suddenly we’re two down and it’s an uphill battle.
“We huffed and puffed in the second half but I don’t think you could really say it was flowing football at any point. We got a goal back but it wasn’t a good performance.
“We started fine and we had a couple of really good chances to take the lead, but it isn’t going for us at the moment. If we’d gone in front then you never know, but we can’t sit here and talk about the ‘what if’s’ and things like that. We have to be completely honest and say that we didn’t deserve to win the game.
“I think when we concede at home at the moment we do lose a bit of confidence. We’re struggling to get wins here and we talked about the next goal being massive when we went in for half time. We got that but they killed it off with their late sucker punch.
“I don’t know if the home form is preying on people’s mind but what is certain is that something isn’t happening here. We have to find the answers for that as a group of players because the preparation for the games has been right. We knew all week what we were going to have to do to stop them from playing but we didn’t take that onto the pitch. We have to accept that criticism.
“All we can do to address this is work even harder. Nobody can change it apart from the eleven who get sent out there. The fans want to see us giving 100% and if we do that then they’ll show their appreciation.
“The lads are all devastated about what’s happening. There’s no point in us getting too down about it because it’s us who has to put it right. We’re paid to do a job and at the moment, here at Brunton Park, we’re not doing it as well as we should be. It’s not through any lack of effort or that we don’t want to do it and, like I say, whatever the reason is we have to put it right.
“When you look at the players we have you know that we can turn this round. A lot of them were here twelve months ago when we were having an outstanding season. It’s up to the senior lads to make sure we drag everyone through because it’s not the end of the world at the moment, but we do need to be getting results when we’re here.”
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