Caretaker boss praises players’ display after sinking high-flying Plymouth.
Caretaker boss Adam Murray has heaped praise on our players after today’s fabulous 1-0 victory over promotion-chasing Plymouth Argyle.Following the departure of manager Paul Cox yesterday, it’s been an eventful 24 hours for our team, but they showed excellent courage, commitment and character to record a deserved win
Our side played some exciting, high-tempo football at times and on loan striker Vadaine Oliver’s breached the Football League’s tightest defence on the stroke of half-time to give us three points which ends Plymouth’s seven-match unbeaten streak in Sky Bet League Two.
“It was a good victory for us and it was needed,” said our caretaker boss, who was speaking in his post-match interview.
“Obviously, with the whirlwind few hours that we’ve had, it was important that we got the message across to the lads how we wanted to go about things, so you have to give credit to the lads today for carrying on that plan.
“We had the lads in early this morning for a pre-match meal at the ground, just to try and clear a few heads and get people focussed and to insert our game-plan and how we wanted to go about things.
“The big thing which we wanted to put across was the belief in our own ability to be brave.
“In the meeting we had a good chat about them and about ourselves, but the main focus was on belief. We wanted to put something in place where we tried to dictate and control the game more than we probably have done in recent weeks and that was putting ownership onto the boys to take control and have bravery.”
He continued: “Yesterday morning we planned, obviously in a different way, how to attack this game and it wasn’t altered until late last night.
“We always wanted to get something out of the game, no matter of the situation, and the plan changed overnight and we went into it in a different frame of mind and with a different viewpoint.
“It’s a massive three points and the lads have to take credit for that.”
Our rejuvenated team will now be looking to carry today’s impressive performance into Tuesday night’s challenging FA Cup first round replay away to non-league Concord Rangers.
Murray is well aware that a different approach will be required against the Vanarama South outfit: “We’ll recover [from today’s game] first and then set the game-plan up for Tuesday.
“Taking into account the environment we’ll be going into – the surface, the surroundings, etcetera, it will have to be a different game-plan, but we’ll prepare to win that game individually. If we have to mix things up a bit, then we will do.
“We’re going there expecting a war and we’ll be ready for a war. We’ll build on today, put a little bit of structure and organisation in on Monday, and we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
