Manager on the Notts County defeat
United manager Greg Abbott gave us his reaction to the narrow away defeat at Notts County on Saturday.
“It’s one where we come away feeling really frustrated,” he said. “We stopped them from playing, I think they only had two shots on target all game, and we’ve created some good chances of our own. We’ve just watched their keeper pick up their man-of-the-match award and his saves have made the difference today.
“I can’t have too many complaints about our performance. We asked the lads to pick themselves up after what happened on Tuesday night and they did that for us. The fans have been absolutely magnificent and they showed their appreciation for the effort. They stayed to the end and clapped their team off because I think they recognised that we were the better side.”
“I had turned away so I missed the incident which led to the sending off,” he explained. “We are being told it was a head-butt but Lee [Miller] just isn’t that type of player. There was no blood and the player has gone down, and I’ve already spoken to the referee. He is adamant that Lee put his head in there and when you do that you run the risk of facing a card. I didn’t see it at all so I need to look at it again before we can say anything else.
“Losing him is a blow but we have players in the squad who are hungry and who want to play. There will be an opportunity there for someone to come in and show us what they can do. Lee [Miller] had a bad game in midweek and I thought he was getting back to where he wanted to be in this one. This is the situation we have now and we have to move on as a group and deal with it.”
“I think frustration is the biggest thing we are feeling right now,” he said. “The players have all done their jobs today and we have dominated for long periods. If we keep playing like this then we’ll win games because I am coming away and wondering how we haven’t got all three points, never mind a draw.
“This happens in football and the important thing is that we have to take the way we played into Tuesday night. We competed and we battled and we played some good football on a very difficult surface. That is definitely a positive for us.”
“Playing that way will always get results,” he continued. “If we create the number and quality of chances we have in this one then we’ll be winning games. I think we’ve seen the squad has reacted to what was their worst performance of the season and they are determined to carry that on. That tells me we have enough to get the points we need.”
“We’ll never be happy with conceding any goal,” he told us. “We’re feeling hard done by with that one because it looked to be a blatant handball. It’s a day where the decisions have gone against us and we’ve missed the chances we have created due to a keeper who has had an unbelievable afternoon. It was a very good finish from him [Alan Judge] but we were on the attack and it’s disappointing that we let that situation turn in their favour. Overall we did enough to have scored our own goals but, like I say, it was one of those days.”
“Tuesday is massively important because it’s our next game and we want to win it,” he said. “We’re used to the long trips and we want to go there and put on another good performance. If we can do that, and play like we did today, then we should have something to smile about.”
