Below are selected highlights from Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed, including Marcus McGuane’s contribution.
Louis Reynolds (BBC Radio Leeds): I know it’s only a few hours on, but we’ll just start with how are you feeling about last night now that you’ve slept on it?
Well, or not slept on it, is the case.
I went back last night and watched it back.
To be fair, naturally, I think you get a real low after the way we lost it on penalties, and how the penalties went, etc, so that obviously doesn’t help the emotion and the feeling.
So I always like to go back and watch it analyse and I get the analytical side, but I also get the emotional side, which I think is important. So, yeah, really disappointed.
I think when you watch it back — and probably my feeling that I spoke about in here last night was probably quite accurate — I thought we had some really, really good passages and good control, restricted them to one shot on target the whole game [and that was their penalty], and then loads of the ball, but probably not enough conviction or purpose first half.
Then second half, they had more of the ball, but all in front of us and in their half of the pitch. For me, we carried a real threat, and their keeper has made three, four excellent saves.
We’ve had some other terrific opportunities: the Dion [Charles] one, Alfie [May]’s off a set piece. We’ve had numerous good opportunities.
That’s why, when I step back, I think if you play that game ten times over, you don’t finish 1-1 in most of them. I think with the chances we created and the performance, I think you win a lot more.
So that’s the bit that we have to take from it. It doesn’t mean that we accept losing, because I don’t like it, but at the same time, another way we look at it is if we continue to perform like that and create the chances we did and restrict them to one shot on target, we’ve got a much greater chance of winning those games again in the future.
LR: What have you learned over the last few days about a group of players that is still relatively new to you?
I think it’s continuous learning about the team, learning about individuals, learning about the culture. It’s only been three weeks, madly. It feels a lot longer with probably how the games have gone and the stress we’ve all gone through and the toll it’s taken on us.
But they’re the bits where you learn a lot about the group. And I think last night’s another one from behind, come back to 1-1, penalties...it’s [learning] how the lads have coped with those situations.
It’s constant, and I don’t think you ever go ‘right, I’m finished learning about the group’. We challenge them and we push them and we coach them, and our job is to stretch them and take them outside their comfort zone, and reflect on experiences like we’ve had. It’s a continuous process that never stops. We’re constantly learning about the lads and constantly trying to push them to become better, ultimately.
LR: Can I ask you about Cam Ashia — just how impressed have you been since you’ve come to the club with him as a young player?
I spoke about Cam, I think it was yesterday…I’ve done a lot of press recently, so forget when it was.
But I spoke about Cam in terms of a really exciting, really high potential player. I think the challenge naturally with young players, and having spent many years myself in player development, is knowing what it takes in terms of turning really high potential into consistent performances.
He gets you off your seat, he excites me. I like watching it when he gets the ball, because you’re not sure what’s going to happen. He puts fear into defenders and puts them on the back foot, and he can produce moments that we as coaches mustn’t stifle. I think that’s really important. We give scope for creativity and, at the right times and in the right area to pitch, for players to express themselves. I’m big on that.
Then around it, there’s non-negotiables that if you want to be a strong team and you want to be relentless with winning games and be successful at the level, you need everybody to contribute.
Those are the bits that I think, naturally, sometimes with young players, you need to keep working out and you need to keep doing video work and having conversations.
But look, he’s someone that we really like, he’s someone that’s done extremely well in the last two games, and I’m sure he’s going to continue to contribute over the next 15.
Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): Is there a chance Ryan Hardie might be in contention for this weekend?
Too early. He’ll be training next week, so it’s a little early for Saturday [against Stevenage or] Tuesday [against Doncaster], but in terms of expecting him back with the group training: back end of next week.
