Mark Gillespie on the Shrewsbury draw
Keeper Mark Gillespie came in for high praise from manager Greg Abbott on Monday as he bounced back from the disappointment of two goals conceded against Shrewsbury to keep a clean sheet against promotion-chasers Sheffield United.
“We’ve said all along that Mark is a good keeper,” Abbott said. “It was massively important for him that we stuck by him and it is no surprise to me at all that he did what he did against Sheffield [United].
“He’ll make mistakes but he will also produce the quality we need. We keep seeing that and we’re delighted for him that he got his clean sheet.”
“It was a fantastic result for the lads,” Gillespie told us. “It’s a massive stadium and a massive club, so it was good for us to get a point even though we only had ten men at the end of the game.
“I thought we had the better chances and I don’t think anyone could have argued if we’d won it, but overall it’s a great point for us.”
“You do get a few extra nerves when it’s a big crowd like this but, to be honest, games like this are what it’s all about,” he added. “I thought we played well from the first whistle. Sometimes you need the rub of the green but I thought we handled them really well.
“We didn’t allow them to create too many chances and I thought Danny [Livesey], Sean O’Hanlon and Murph [Peter Murphy] coped with all of that. It was almost a perfect away performance and we have to be pleased with what we’ve done.”
On his own performance, he said: “It was very important for me to make a couple of saves after what happened on Friday.
“I was really disappointed with my own performance against Shrewsbury and with the way I conceded those two goals. The manager said he was going to pick me for this one and I have to thank him for that. The perfect response was for me to keep a clean sheet and I’m delighted that I got it.
“I did feel there was a bit of extra pressure on me with the way the game went on Friday. I knew everybody would be watching me more than they otherwise would have been and I was glad that we had another game so quickly so I could get it out of my system.
“I think I’ve put that to bed now and I just want to do as well as I can for the team between now and the end of the season.”
“I think a result like this will give us all a massive boost,” he concluded. “We need points as quickly as we can get them and we all want to climb as high up the table as we can. Things like this help with that.”
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