Chester Boss Simon Davies On The Match

Last updated : 24 July 2008 By Thetashkentterror

Simon Davies
City manager Simon Davies spoke to the Chester Evening leader tonight about his side's 3-1 pre-season friendly defeat at home to Carlisle, Davies extolling the virtues of his midfielders :


" The result isn't everything at the moment, a pre-season game obviously, like we had in the previous two, but we must take the negatives from it, which seems a strange thing to say. We need to have a look at how we have conceded the three goals in a game which we've done ever so well in. I wouldn't like to play too many more games like that where we are controlling play at times and creating opportunities, and scoring a goal. Then we end up losing by a couple of goals, by conceding three at the other end.

" I think one was half-decent play and sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say that decent players have created an opportunity there and put it in the back of the net. There were two goals there though that really shouldn't have been, we should have cut them out. It was a mistake by John (Danby) for one of them and a bit of a mix-up for the second one. Of course, this is the time to make them but we must make sure that they don't happen too often.

" The midfield, the rotation that we have got with the three in there, it worked quite well, especially in the first-half. We have got (David) Mannix and then Jay Harris to come into that so there is competition, it's going to be decent and it is going to be interesting there when they are playing for their places.

" I thought that the whole make-up of it, the way the system, whether the system suits the players or the players suit the system I don't know. It's working though, so we'll keep going with that, we're getting results and we're getting players going forward into good areas.

" We just need to make sure that we plug a few holes defensively. It isn't always going to come off for you and we are not always going to score the goal, so when it breaks down we must make sure that teams aren't counter-attacking too much on us. So we need to have people in the right holes and plug the gaps, and if we can do that and get the understanding of the more defensive midfielders to be holding and let the flair players go and do their business then we can have the right mix.

" We've got a quality of player up top, like (Kevin) Ellison, (Ritchie) Partridge, (Ryan) Lowe, big Murph (John Murphy), every time the ball has gone into him tonight it has stuck. He has flicked things into people's paths as well, he is there to set up everything up basically, so that is invaluable.

" People actually say about Murph that he maybe doesn't score the goals that you would like, and what does he actually do. I tell you what though, without him, which we didn't have for half an hour at the end there we were lost without him. Because there was no platform to play off and he is invaluable. If we can keep him as fit as we can throughout the season then he'll be a big plus for us."