United boss Paul Simpson gave us his reaction to the Wycombe away defeat shortly after full-time at Adams Park on Saturday afternoon.
“It was two big moments in the first half that made it really difficult and I think we’ve brought them on ourselves as well,” he said. “We can’t blame anybody else, it was about us.
“The sending off is just amateurish, absolutely amateurish I’m afraid. We talk about having a picture, having a vision of what’s going on around you, and we talk about talking and helping each other out.
“You could blame a lot of things, but the referee has made the right decision, had to send him off for it.
“Looking at the penalty footage as well, Hunts has got a challenge in and he’s actually made contact with the ball, but I suppose by the letter of the law he’s gone through the back of the player and he can’t do anything about it.
“We’ve gifted those situations to them and if we’re professional those things don’t happen, because we don’t give them those opportunities in the first place.”
“I look at the first half and I think it was really poor,” he continued. “Forget about those incidents we just talked about, I just thought we were really poor in not being on the front foot and stopping players from backing us off into our box.
“I think you have to be aggressive in the way you defend and we haven’t done that part of it. With the ball I don’t think we kept it well enough, we haven’t been brave enough in possession to keep it, but I have to say that I thought the attitude after the break was absolutely first class, I really do.
“We probably should have got ourselves back into it with the opportunities we created. I complained about the set play delivery at the last game, but I thought Mox’s delivery for the corner for Lavelle’s chance was outstanding.
"I’m expecting it to nestle in the net, but it went wide, and then we had a really good bit of play to get Sean Maguire in down the right side of the box, and I thought he should have got his shot off earlier.
“I felt there was an opportunity for Jordan Gibson where again we had a really good bit of play, and he may have got a penalty if he’d gone down, but we’re too honest in those situations.
“I’m not saying that we should cheat, but if he’d gone down it was a foul. He tries to avoid the defender and we lose the opportunity to shoot. With the way the referee was with some of the decisions I think that if he’d gone it could easily have been given.
“The second goal was a killer, it was such a sucker punch. It came at a time when I thought we had some really good momentum about us. I’m really pleased with the way they went about it in the second half, but we’ve absolutely shot ourselves in the foot with what we did in the first half.”
On the moment which led to the sending off, he told us: “It’s a lack of concentration, a lack of awareness, that’s different to the unforced error we had at Port Vale.
“Unfortunately it’s the same goalkeeper who’s on the receiving end of it. I don’t know, it’s hard to get my head around how that can happen. Looking back at it, he’s had no help from anybody else.
“We’ve had every single one of our players not facing him, they’ve all got their back to him, and we’ve got to help each other out. It was too late when two or three of our players turned round and saw him and shouted and were making a gesture to him.
“I’m afraid he has to take that on his own chin, he’s got to deal with that. It opens the door for Tomas who I spoke to this week who thinks he deserves to play, which everybody does. Now it’s up to Tomas to stay in there.
“That shouldn’t be happening, it’s as simple as that, but Jokull has to own it as his error, it’s as simple as that. There’s no point in me going over and over it, it’s an error that you really don’t expect to see in professional football.
“I’m sorry, I know every blue moon it does happen, but no, he’s suspended now because of it and Tomas is in. I thought he came on, he kicked well, he showed good handling, and I didn’t think he could do a lot about the second goal, so it’s up to him to make sure he keeps hold of the shirt now he’s back.”
Having seen the resulting free kick out, a penalty was awarded to the hosts during their next attack.
“Like I say, it was poor defending, really poor defending,” he commented. “We give a penalty away, we take a yellow card, and there was no need for it.
“It should have been stopped at source, we could have gone tighter on McCleary and kept him outside the box, we just weren’t brave enough and you get punished. We’ve got ourselves punished through our own mistakes.
“You’re then down to ten men, you have to change the shape, but I actually thought the shape in the second half was better. I thought Sean Maguire made some outstanding runs, he caused all sorts of problems, and I thought Jordan Gibson had another good game.
“I thought Owen Moxon was better and I thought Fin Back was outstanding, he played really well. Sadly you come away with absolutely nothing, there are no points from the game, it’s a 2-0 defeat, and we have to take it on the chin and move on.
“I changed it at half-time because Hunts had a yellow card, so I wasn’t prepared to take the chance of him getting booked again. I felt as though with Sam and Jon Mellish’s legs in there that might give us a bit more, and I felt as though we needed to get a bit of a focal point up front.
“Joe Garner gave us that a little bit, he competed and got around. I suppose it was protecting Hunts but it was a tactical decision to try and give us a bit of a base to get back into the game.”
It was the Blues who started to take the upper hand after the break, but the wind was taken out of the sails when Sam Vokes pounced to net a second goal for the hosts.
“We had some good bits of play,” He agreed. “I thought we showed some patience, much better patience in the second half when we were down to 10 men.
“It comes back to the way we started the game, that was really disappointing. You can’t come into any game, especially against a team who are decent at home, and start like we did. We just weren’t at it and ultimately that’s given them a base to be able to go on and beat us.
“I’m not taking anything away from Wycombe, because I thought they were decent, they were effective in the way they went about it, and they have a real focal point in Vokes.
“They have two forward players in Hanlan and McCleary who cause problems, and they have two midfielders in Scowan and Potts who are good footballers and who do things properly.
“What they did better was the basics, it’s a simple as that. We didn’t do the basics well. We’re trying to clear our lines and not doing it, and it goes straight to their player.
“I know that always happens when you’re down to ten men, but even at 11 men we weren’t getting those parts of it done properly. We weren’t giving ourselves an actual fighting chance of being able to retain the ball.
“Over the 90-odd minutes Wycombe have deserved it, but I do think we invited them to win the game with some of the mistakes we made in the first half.”
