Defender speaks to the club website following Wanderers' defeat at the hands of Burnley
Speaking to bwfc.co.uk following the final whistle at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon, David Wheater was left frustrated that Wanderers were unable to capitalise on their early dominance against the Clarets.
Having run proceedings for much of the first half, the Whites were ultimately undone by an Andre Gray brace in the second period which condemned them to defeat in their derby clash against Sean Dyche’s side.
And reflecting on the game, the defender admitted his disappointment at leaving the game empty handed.
“We thought we played pretty well, so we’re all disappointed – the manager said that it’s probably the best we’ve played away from home but we’ve come away with nothing to show for it at the end of the day and that’s what matters.
“Any of us would rather play badly for 90 minutes and come away with a win than play well and not get anything – it’s just not going that way for us. It will come though and we will pick up wins on the road.”
He continued: “We played well, especially in the first half. When we came in at half time, the lads were confident of keeping a clean sheet, but it wasn’t to be.
“We just need to keep going and we’re confident that we can do our best to take six points from the next two home games we’ve got coming up.”
With Wanderers coming close to opening the scoring during the opening 45 minutes with goalkeeper Tom Heaton forced into a number of smart saves to deny them, Wheater believes that perseverance will eventually pay off for the Whites.
“It’s a cliché that you need to score when you’re on top but we had chances – I had one cleared off the line late on, but all we can do is keep training hard and eventually they’ll fall for us.
“Burnley didn’t really have too many chances in front of goal – they were just more clinical than us and that was the difference at the final whistle.
“For their first, Gray was just in the perfect position to put it in the net and that’s the luck that we need really.”
Taking his place in a defence with included three different nationalities, the 28-year-old reserved special praise for debutant Jose Manuel Casado who experienced something of a baptism of fire on his first appearance for the club.
“I think as a defence we’ve generally done well,” he said. “Even though there’s a couple of different languages being spoken in there, football is a universal language that everybody understands when they’re out there on the pitch.
“Jose, coming in at left-back, did really well on his debut. He’s got some good experience behind him so I’m sure he wasn’t fazed by the occasion and hopefully he can carry on doing well for us.”
“From a personal point of view, I’m confident that I can stay injury free now,” he added. “I’m feeling good in myself and hopefully that will continue.
“Looking ahead, we’ve been playing well at home, but we probably haven’t won as many games as we would have liked.
“Hopefully we can take inspiration from how we played for much of the Burnley game and push on to pick up back-to-back wins this coming week to make everything a bit brighter.”