Defender talks about the Swindon game
Left back Chris Chantler gave us his thoughts on what was another tough test in the 2-2 draw with Swindon Town at the weekend.
He said: “I think this game, along with the one against MK Dons, have been our toughest of the season so far.
“They were strong and physical and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They have some very good players but all we had to do was keep going.
“We got our goals and certainly when we scored the second we started to think that we just needed to calm things down a bit. It might have been a different game if we’d stopped them from getting that second equaliser, but obviously that isn’t how it happened.”
Talking more about the mad first-half four minutes of football which shaped the whole game, he added: “It was unbelievable. We were in the lead and looking fairly comfortable in my opinion, and then their lad scored a great goal. Jake [Jervis] put us back in front again and, like I say, we just needed to close it down.”
“I was up against Matt Ritchie for most of the game and he was left footed,” he added. “That makes it tricky for a full-back because you have to show him down the line. He then realised that and he started to go down the line anyway. It was interesting for me but I thought I handled it all quite well.
“For me, we’ve defended quite well overall but we do keep looking for the clean sheet. As a group we know we have to concentrate for 90 minutes and I thought there was an element of luck about their goals. We’ll just keep trying to defend as well as we can and hopefully they will come for us.”
Talking about his role in defence, he said: “I’m really comfortable with it. I've played for years and years at left back so it’s nothing new. I enjoy it because you can see everything in front of you and you have more time to decide what to do with the ball.
“My job is to stop goals coming from my side and I think I’m right in saying that I don’t think anyone has got an assist against me yet. I haven't been skinned over and over again either, and those are the two main parts of the game I have to cover.”
“Working with Matt Robson is good,” he continued. “He’s had a spell at left back so he knows about the position. Compare that to Francois Zoko last year and I wasn’t getting any protection from him at all. Robbo knows where I would want a winger to be when I’m defending and he’s as quick as anyone in this league going forward. If you can get him one-on-one by getting the ball to him quickly you give him a real chance. We seem to be getting on really well.”
“This is my first start to a season and the games come thick and fast,” he said. “It’s good for us because it means we can build up a bit of momentum. We should be confident against Crewe because we’re at home and I think we should just get at them. If we do that we should be able to get a result.”
United Player subscribers can see a video interview with Chris Chantler later today. For more information on United Player, and to subscribe, click HERE.
