The following are selected highlights of Jon Stead’s pre-match press conference ahead of facing Wimbledon. You can hear the full thing, as well as Murray Wallace’s thoughts, on our podcast feed or by hitting the play button above. You can also check out our weekly digest for full team news.
Jon Stead
Katherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds) Obviously, passion is running really high after the Mansfield game last weekend, and you actually said [after the game] that given everything that had gone into the preparation, it felt like a bit of a slap in the face. I just wondered what reaction you’d had from your players in the aftermath of that, and whether actually any of them apologised to yourself and Martin.
Yeah, we had a lot of apologies, actually. Yeah, I think they recognised that they let themselves down. I think the slap in the face is just all the work that goes into everything, and I didn’t see that result coming. I just didn’t see it coming. So the shock of it was such a slap. It was just really, really difficult to kind of compute and understand.
When you have a couple of days to look back on it and you kind of review it — and we watch the games back two or three times, as we do, and we pick the bones out of it — you recognise that there was just a real lack of belief.
I think after the results that went the way they did on the Tuesday prior to that game, and kind of the mathematical inevitability that we weren’t going to make the play-offs, I think there was just a flatness and just a bit of a lull, and I think we felt that in terms of the result.
Performance-wise, it wasn’t as good as it has been. It wasn’t there. I mean, what’s mad — and I don’t get stuck on data, because I think everybody can see from the result and the way that game felt that it wasn’t right — but the data showed us that we were again ahead in terms of shots, all the metrics that we’d normally count as a good performance were there, and [Mansfield] had three shots on target and scored four goals. So it’s, yeah, difficult.
KH: I guess it’s very easy to just go, ‘well, they’ve downed tools, they’re not trying, nothing to play for’…clearly from the apologies you’ve had, what did the players actually say to you to convince you that that wasn’t the case?
Yeah, well, listen, we’ve been with this group long enough now and seen enough from them through these games that they’ve given everything. They have given everything. There’s been a complete turn in spirit and togetherness, in passion, in fight for the club, and we’ve seen it in abundance.
So I’m looking towards this weekend now as that game being a bit of a one-off. If you have one poor performance and one little lapse of concentration and not being quite at it for one game out of six, then across the space of the season, you’d take that, so I’m hoping that that’s the case.
But the players knew that they let each other down. They knew they let the staff down and the club as well, and that that performance didn’t fit in line with the rest of them that we’ve seen.
Again, there’s a lot of reasons behind that, and I think the biggest one is we spoke to the players at half-time, actually, at Leyton Orient, and just said, ‘look, believe. Believe in yourselves more’. I’m a very positive person in general, probably a bit too positive at times, but the belief that we had, myself and Martin and the staff, that we could get to a position where we could be going into this last game with everything to play for, we had 100 per cent belief in that — and I’m not sure at times the players did.
I think that’s just an accumulation of difficult moments throughout the season that’s kind of knocked them and knocked the confidence.
We got to a point where I think we’d picked that back up, and we’ve got there with it, and then you get another knock at Bolton and you have that frustration, and then the results that follow on that Tuesday make it a very difficult end to the season.
So like I say, I’m hopeful, and I’m really pushing for them to show everybody that it was a blip on Saturday and that that wasn’t a performance that they can hold themselves to, because the others have been very good.
KH: The chairman, Kevin Nagle, put out a very impassioned statement after last weekend’s game as well, and made no bones about it. He’s very much going to be watching this game on Saturday, in his words, sort of talking about who’s playing for the shirt. I just wondered if you could give us any insight into what conversations you’ve perhaps collectively had with the chairman over the last seven days, and how he’s feeling about everything going into this final game.
Yeah, well, I think a lot’s riding on it. I think there’s a lot of things around staff riding on it as well. There’s things about players, decisions for their future. So I think everybody’s got real things to play for.
It’s probably the opposite compared to it being billed as a dead rubber, with obviously Wimbledon winning their game last week and securing their place in the league for next season.
In terms of how we look at it and how Kevin looks at it, there’s everything to play for — that should be the case every game, that’s what this business is about, that’s why we do it, because everything is on the line every time you walk through the door here, and it should be like that, because you need to have that to be an elite environment, and that’s what we’re looking to build and create.
So yeah, there’s not been many conversations, but I don’t think there needs to be, because I think the tweet was very clear. Everybody needs to be on it.
You need to show how much you’re committed. You need to make sure that that’s very, very visible to see, because sometimes that’s the only way you can show it, is out on the pitch. Not me talking to you, not the players talking to you. It needs to be shown, it needs to be felt and seen and heard by everybody else outside in that stand.
So yeah, the pressure’s on in terms of that, because everybody is playing and competing and working hard for their futures, and that future needs to be — if you want it to be with Huddersfield Town, then you’ve got to put it in.
KH: There’s a lot of big decisions to make, I think, over the coming weeks. And inevitably you maybe need a bit of time for the dust to settle and people to reflect a little bit. But how soon do you think we might be able to expect some kind of resolution about where the club goes going forward, whether Liam Manning comes back, and on yourself and Martin and the playing staff as well? Are there any timescales when we might know a little more about the direction the future of the club will go in?
No, I mean, there’s no timescales as such. I think all these things, I think we’re all clear that they need to be resolved as quickly as possible. There’s a lot that goes into big decisions at football clubs, and they do take time.
I’m sure some of those discussions and conversations have already happened, so I think they’ll be working down the line in terms of when we can get that resolved. But again, our remit, for me and Martin, was very clear when we came in: try and put a product on the pitch that can re-galvanise everybody, that can reconnect the supporters with the players and the club, and give us every opportunity to go and still complete the objectives in very, very difficult circumstances when everything was probably against us.
The game is fine margins, and I think there’s been real fine margins in whether we could have achieved that or not. But on the whole I’ve seen moments in this last four or five weeks where I can be extremely proud of what we can be proud of as a football club, and how we’ve come together, and how we’ve had some magical moments out on the pitch, albeit you might be coming away from the game disappointed.
But there’s been some real moments of excitement and, I suppose, if I don’t get another opportunity to say this, I’ve loved every second of it, and I feel so proud and honoured and privileged to walk out there leading your football club. It is pretty special.
I’ve loved every second of it, and I’m just gutted that it didn’t end the way I really believed it would do, because I just fancied us. I really, really did — so did Martin. And you know what? We’re hurting as much as everybody else.
But the honour and pride you have is quite remarkable. So I do want to thank, obviously, the club and the fans and you guys as well — I just want to thank everybody, because it’s been remarkable.
