Following Wanderers’ 2-0 defeat at the hands of Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Phil Parkinson offered his thoughts. Speaking to bwfc.co.uk after the game, the manager discussed the following topics...
On today’s performance…
I can only apologise to our travelling supporters today because that wasn’t good enough. We started okay and I thought it was an even game up until the first goal. The first goal was a very simple goal and it gave them the lead.
For the second goal, we haven’t cleared our lines from a set play and reacted to the second phase situations, and then after that Burton grew ten feet tall and were the first to every ball all over the pitch. They were more aggressive, more physical and looked like they wanted it more than us.
We didn’t offer anything. I’ve stood here several times and defended performances, but I can’t today.
Losing the battle in both boxes...
I thought Burton did all the horrible things in the game better than us. We’d spoken to the lads about what to expect here today, because they play a certain way, they’re physical and their defenders head it when they need to.
In both boxes they were better than us, because we were poor. We need to have a long look at ourselves – from myself to every single player to make sure that next week, we put in a better performance than we did today.
Needing more match winning moments...
We concede that we have to show more fight in us than we did today. The goals have knocked the stuffing out of us and that’s not good enough. It’s not just about being physical, it’s about putting the onus on yourself as a front player, as a wide player, and as a midfield player to go and produce a moment to get back into games.
Let’s be honest, when was the last time someone produced a real moment of quality to get us back into a game or to win us a game of football? That’s what you need.
The goals knocked the stuffing out of us today, and it made them ten foot tall - you could visibly see that. We didn’t respond anywhere near enough to that.
On Alnwick and Noone….
I thought Ben (Alnwick) was outstanding again today, some of the saves he made were terrific. We went to three at the back and we opened up, and when you do that you become vulnerable on the counter attack.
When he was called upon today, he has kept the score down and I’ll give Nooney (Craig Noone) a mention because he played today like he understood the situation that we’re in.
He ran himself into the ground and it didn’t always come off for him – some of his crossing wasn’t great, but I thought he gave everything and typified what we needed. But, there wasn’t enough from everybody else.
On next weekend…
There’s a chance because the other teams have got difficult games, but we’ve got to give ourselves a chance by winning against Forest. If we are to go down next week, then we’ve got to go down fighting, a lot more than we did today.
Not just fighting as in tackling and heading, but showing more conviction and belief when we’ve got the ball.
Today's terrific away support and looking to bounce back…
The supporters were great. I can only apologise to every single one of them because I feel for them. If only they knew how much that is hurting me.
Because as much as that will be hurting them driving home tonight, losing like that and going down with a whimper, has knocked the stuffing out of me too, which you can imagine.
I’ve got to pick myself up and pick a team that is ready to run through brick walls next week.