Steve Cotterill assessed today’s video game versus Sheffield Wednesday.
Michael Smith scored a hat-trick as Darren Moore’s side went out 3-0 winners at Montgomery Waters Meadow.
Town completed well total however simply could not discover that touch of quality when it mattered. In the very first half, we saw a variety of shots obstructed while after the period Chey Dunkley went close and Luke Leahy struck the bar.
Speaking post-match, Steve assessed the video game and provided an update on Rekeil Pyke and Christian Saydee – with both gamers betting Wednesday following recent injuries.
ON THE VIDEO GAME:
“We got lots of effort which is what we constantly get.
“We’ve distributed 2 poor objectives and meet a team that has lots of quality, that’s it.
“And what they have actually got is a team. The subs they make when it’s in the future in the video game and you’re believing ‘oh god, I hope he does not wish to begin and be a bit livelier than the men who have actually been there for 70 minutes.’
“They’re simply a side loaded with quality which’s why they’re on 90+ points – which is usually sufficient to increase (instantly).
“We have not got that. We handed out a poor objective, we’re one-nil down.
“They (Wednesday) then, to be reasonable to them and their character, they got in 4 excellent blocks because very first half, 4 excellent blocks.
“And that’s another reason that they’re on 90 points, due to the fact that they have actually done those things.
“We constantly understood it was going to be a hard video game. Coupled with all the other challenging video games we have actually had.
“We have not had a week where you believe ‘alright, we’re great and fresh today, we can play someone that remains in and around ourselves and have a week’s build-up.
“Whenever we did that earlier in the season it was good and it was rewarding for us.
“With the run of video games that we have actually had, whoever put the components together definitely wasn’t a Shrewsbury fan, due to the fact that if you take a look at it, you might’ve almost said all of these groups are going to remain in and around the leading 10.
“And we have actually played all of them. Not all of them expanded, all of them back-to-back-to-back.
“There’s never ever one where you believe ‘we need to win today and we’re fresh’, on top of that with the injuries we have actually needed to handle, today we were as flush as we have actually ever been, definitely for a little while.
“The difficulty is that they have not all played and I believe if you see Christian Saydee in the very first half, Christian has actually been definitely very first class for us, perhaps he’ll be much better for that very first 45 minutes, however he simply wasn’t sharp enough, he wasn’t sharp today.
“You require those minutes from him, and we had a number of those minutes in the very first half, where you require him to be sharp.
“For me, we’re simply betting a side that has lots of quality and no matter what you do and what you alter, they’ll discover a method on the pitch.
“The bottom line is that they’re too helpful for us. They’re too helpful for us. That’s where we’re at.”
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS:
“If you consider when I initially can be found in, we were joint bottom or 2nd from bottom of the table and we was because of end up that season on 32 points if you exercised what it was because of want 13 video games.
“That indicates you’re most likely relegated by the end of January.
“It’s been a long tough roadway recruiting. Recruiting, gamers then going, hiring once again, more gamers going, hiring.
“We have not been threatened by transfer all season, no place near it.
“We’ve remained in that leading 10 for 80-90% of the season and we have actually never ever when needed to come out and examine our shoulder due to the fact that someone else has actually won today and all of an unexpected we’re a point or more out of the transfer zone.
“We’ve had times when we were 2 points beyond the play-offs in January, so when you take a look at how far we have actually come and you have actually been up there, suddenly things level and we’re dissatisfied due to the fact that we remain in mid-table.
“And that’s most likely right. I do think we deserve to be higher in the table than we are.
“I know everybody says the league table doesn’t lie, and I’ve most likely used that line myself over the years, but it just feels different this time.
“That’s not me soft-soaping it or anything like that.
“I just believe the shift that they’ve put in this season, I want it so badly for them to finish in that top half of the table and ideally that top 10.
“We need other results to go our way and we need to win both of our games and we understand that where other teams have perhaps got a week’s break, we’ve got to play again on Tuesday because Bristol Rovers had international call-ups.”
ON WANTING TO WIN FOR FORMER WEDNESDAY PLAYER CHEY DUNKLEY:
“I wanted to win so badly today for Chey Dunkley.
“Whilst I want to win so badly for myself and for the lads and for the supporters, I see Chey Dunkley every day and I watch him every game.
“I really feel for him today, I really feel for him, but there’s nothing more I could’ve done.
“Sometimes you look back on a game and think ‘I wish I’d done this or I wish I’d done that’ but I haven’t got any regrets because I don’t know what else there would’ve been that I could’ve done.”
ON THE CHANCES WE CREATED:
“I think with a little bit more sharpness, a little bit more belief and a little bit more confidence – maybe they go in.
“But when we have had the run we have had and the lads keep getting banged on the head with defeats – it doesn’t matter what we say, somewhere along the line it will affect them.
“What we need to do is get ourselves in front and then go and get another goal.
“They you will see all of those players come back to what you saw before we hit the bump in the road – which was most likely mid-March.
“It was going to catch up with us sooner or later. That is the reality of it.
“But we will be back in and working next week. We will see this all the way through and the lads will be committed all the way through.
“They were committed today. But the bottom line is we haven’t got the quality that they (Wednesday) have got. We haven’t got that. We just haven’t got it and sometimes it’s really, really, tough to stifle it.
“And then what you hope is there are no mistakes – you hope there isn’t a mistake anywhere.”
ON REKEIL PYKE AND CHRISTIAN SAYDEE:
“The trouble is he (Rekeil) has done one training session. He has done one training session.
“And at the end there, you are expecting a little bit more from him however he has done one training session, Ricky.
“Saydee has done hardly any training sessions. And we have got a three-game week coming up so you have got to look at teams and how you are going to play and try and plan.
“It’s hard because you desire to plan the week out with what you’re potentially going to do.
“It’s hard to do that at the moment. But the lads have tried and tried and tried. I can’t fault them.
“You hear a lot of the managers at the leading clubs, you hear Pep mention about fighting – and you have actually got to fight all the time.
“You have got to fight and that is what we have to do until the final whistle is blown at Lincoln.
“If this club ends up in mid-table, it will be a big achievement. When you look at the sides that are down there at the moment and struggling.
“It’s been tough, it’s like we have been going uphill for six weeks. Everything is uphill at the moment however we are difficult and we will see it out.”
