Manager on the Bournemouth game
Manager Greg Abbott gave us his reaction to the 3-1 away defeat at Bournemouth.
“I think that’s a score line which doesn’t really reflect the performance on the day,” he said. “We’ve created some really good chances and on another day, if one or two of them go in, then we’d be looking at a positive result to go with the work the lads have done.
“I thought we started really well. We knew it was going to be a party atmosphere and the challenge for the group was to not allow that to affect them. We had them on the back foot in the first half and sometimes the width of the woodwork makes a huge difference in terms of the final outcome.
“The disappointment for us was that we wanted to keep our unbeaten run going. If we’d come here and not shown the levels of drive and energy we demand then I would be leaving here in a less than happy frame of mind, but that wasn’t the case. We’ve shown that we aren’t a million miles away from a team who are deservedly at the top of our division, and there are plenty of positives for us to take.
“Lee Miller’s goal was outstanding. There were a few signs that we might go on and get more but we ran out of steam a little bit. Credit to Bournemouth because they scored a couple of good goals to get the points they needed. We saw the quality Harry [Arter] had as a player when he was with us and he has gone from strength to strength since he got back in their side.
“You’re never going to be happy with conceding goals but I think we are looking much better defensively overall. We have a lot to be excited about as we go into the summer and, with a few additions in the right areas, I think we’ll find ourselves pushing on at the right end of things next time round.
“We had some big performances and I think the two lads in midfield did a fantastic job. We’ve moved the formation around a bit and the width from Matty [Robson] and JP [McGovern] caused them all kinds of problems. Robbo has worked hard to get over his back injury as quickly as possible and he's shown us what he brings to the side. Their third goal came from us switching things again and pushing men forward, but I don’t think we have too much to be down about.
“We’re all enjoying watching Brad Potts at right back. He’s grown into it and it gives us a lot of hope for the future. Alex [Salmon] was added to the mix and he has his debut now, and it’s the experience these young players are getting which will stand us in good stead.
“Both sets of fans were absolutely magnificent. We’ve had so many of them coming up and telling us we were the best team they’ve seen here this season and our supporters stayed behind to applaud them for their achievement. We would have liked to have gone over as a group to thank them at the final whistle but it was one of those days where we had to step back to allow Bournemouth to do their things. The officials had concerns over the fans coming onto the pitch as well, so we were asked to get out of the way. It was just impossible for us to get out there.
“Hopefully we’ll get to say thank you to them all next week because they have been unbelievably patient with us. Hopefully we’ve paid them back a little bit over the past few months, with the way we’ve played our football, and our aim will be to carry that on again next season.
“The injury to Danny [Cadamarteri] is a blow but the important thing for him now is to get it sorted. We have to work behind the specialists on that one. He’ll get looked at on Monday and we’ll take it from there. Hopefully it won’t be anything too serious and we’ll have him back on the training ground and with us, which is where we all want him to be.”
