Daily Catch Up - Sunday 24 March

“I think, looking at the big picture, for me personally, it was good be out there and play 90 minutes after such a long period of time.

“Graham’s been brilliant for us, with his goals and his assists, we knew we’d all have to step up with him out of the team,” he continued. “I felt first-half we did that, we played well, created a lot of chances.

“Second-half, obviously being in front, we sat back a little bit more, probably too much towards the end, but I think overall we deserved to win with the performance. It’s a bit gutting to lose the late goal.

“I had a couple of shots. I would like to weigh in with some goals, especially with Graham being out of the team, we all had to step up. I thought Ruben Lameiras was excellent, creating things, and he deserved his goal. We know that we have to get goals all over the pitch.

“Obviously Graham Carey had picked up a little injury, but I didn’t know if I would come back into the team, or not. I’d prepared just as if I was going to play, I’ve done that for the last while anyway, but it’s nice to get the opportunity and I’m delighted to be back out there in front of the fans.

“I’ve done a lot of work when I was injured, a lot of extra work. It was me and Conor Grant, actually, doing a lot of extra stuff in the gym, the swimming pool, lots of extra things just to make sure we were in the best condition possible for when we came back in. I definitely felt the benefit of that and hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the end of the season.”

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“We’re a point better off than we were at the start of the day; we’re a point ahead of Bristol Rovers; and it’s still extremely tight. We have been on a terrific run to put ourselves in the position we are in.

“There’s much of a muchness between teams. The standard is very good at all levels, and teams are just picking off each other. You look at the results on Saturday and it is quite scary. If you have got a few technically better players in your side, it will give you a better opportunity to go forwards.

“At times, Ruben played in an area where was difficult for Bristol Rovers to pick him up – and he’s drifted into the box and got a very good goal, right into the corner of the net. It gave everyone in the stadium a huge lift.
“He played either side of Upson and we knew that, if we could get him into these areas, he would cause Upson trouble.

“It’s hard to read any team at this moment in time. You see games and results and you think ‘Where’s that come from?’ but we always thought that the teams that were in the middle of the table to start the season could falter and come back towards us.

“I always say ‘Let’s wait until there are six games to go in the season and see where everyone is’ – 18 points to play for with six games to go. They should just make it a six-game season.”

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