Chris Wilder on Cheltenham Defeat
Manager Chris Wilder was philosophical as his side put in an improved performance at Cheltenham last night. The U’s were unlucky not to take something away from Whaddon Road as Peter Leven’s penalty set up an exciting finish, but the Manager is not one to hide away from the fact that his side need a result.
“We are scratching for a result and it is hurting at the moment” he told Yellow Player. “Defeat is hard to take but if you’ve supported the cub here tonight and seen it then you’ve seen 16 players desperate to get a result. It’s just not going for us at the moment. We get punished with their second effort at goal while we have had countless shots ourselves in the first half.
“It has maybe been a criticism that we have not been positive enough in and around the final third in the last two or three games, but I thought we were tonight, led by Deane Smalley who I thought was excellent all night. The boys got their shots off, and we looked positive. We went behind and maybe looked edgy for five or ten minutes but then I thought we regained our composure and in the second half we kicked on.
“I don’t like losing but I can accept it because we have tackled, got shots away and made contact with the game. It easily turns around. We had eight points from six games last season, then go and win at Swindon and everyone is jumping through hoops. We have nine points this time and there is a long way to go. We have to snap out of this pretty quickly in terms of a result but if they play like they did tonight I’m sure a result is just around the corner.
“We have to keep believing, we have to be patient in what we are trying to do, stick to our beliefs in trying to pass the ball. I thought the balance tonight was pretty good. Somewhere down the line we will play worse than this and win but we have to make sure we keep the standards high like we did tonight.”
See the whole interview plus Highlights in Yellow Player