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" I am a little bit disappointed to be honest but it is probably a good lesson for us that all that the players have had since they have come back is plaudits and patting them on the back. I thought that today, listen, they (Middlesbrough) are a good side, there is no question about that.
" They have got some quality through the team, they have just come down from the Premier League. I think that if we are going to get beat then we get beat a lot harder than that though. They were comfortable today and we have not caused them enough problems when we have had the ball, and certainly we weren't as tough as I would like when we haven't got the ball.
" In pre-season you do have a period of a couple of days where you have worked exceptionally hard and you feel a bit weary. We looked a bit short today, we looked actually unfit. What it is is that they will probably feel better for the work that we have done at the back end of next week.
" You are building up to the Brentford game and I think that we worked exceptionally hard, we had a double session on Thursday and worked very, very hard and there might just be a little bit of that. They are little excuses that we are not going to put forward though because that is not the way we are. We still think that we could have caused them more problems today than we did. "
" I don't think that we are going to play teams as good as Middlesbrough and be starved of the ball as much as we were today. We had a lot of the ball on Tuesday night and used it very well and got into some good areas. Today we didn't really get the ball into the high enough areas early enough and with as much quality. Our strikers really haven't had the supply that they had on Tuesday night so you can't really have a go at them. It was that our all round game was just a little bit under what it was on Tuesday night.
" We didn't create any chances for a striker to miss today, so we know what we need. We do know that we do one, I wouldn't think that today has heightened that or lessened it. We know that we want one and we want a goalscorer really. I think that Scott (Dobie) and Gary (Madine) are decent at leading the line, Joe (Anyinsah) is going to be a handful with his power and strength.
" You look at the two players that they were up against (Robert Huth and David Wheater), they are both valued at about £8 million apiece. They are not duck eggs, they are decent football players and I think that a lot of better players than we have got would have found it hard against those two.
" That is what we are up against though and what we are trying to say to the players is that we have to make life more uncomfortable for them by working harder, being a bit braver, being a little bit sharper, getting the balls on. When we did turn them round and put the ball over the top, and the speed of Joe and Scott certainly first-half did cause them problems. We didn't actually pass the ball though and get it into areas for them to feed off and get the chances that we did on Tuesday.
" I don't think that Brentford's two centre-halves are going to be as good as that, I'll put it that way. So they might find it a little bit easier but the same sort of toughness will be there with the Brentford players. They probably won't have as much of the game as Middlesbrough have, and that is what we have got to remember. "
" We were up against a quality opposition today and while we can't get too disappointed, there is a big message of the standards that we have set ourselves. Well the players have set their own standards and that is what we are looking for on a regular basis.
" I can't really say what I thought about their two goals, I am glad that they aren't league goals. They were absolutely awful weren't they, the first one we are in good possession, we give the ball away, a stupid free-kick, and then it is not a fantastic free-kick is it. He has just curled it around the wall without much, whether our wall is in the wrong position or not, we will have a look at that one.
" The second goal was particularly disappointing where I am not so sure that I would have let anybody run so far without getting some sort of challenge in, and you can take out of that whatever you want, he certainly wouldn't have got to the box.
" We have learned that we need to pass the ball better, you need to get in people's faces, you need to get closer to people. You can't give people like (Julio) Arca and (Adam) Johnson space, they are quality aren't they. We have to move centre-halves when they are like that, we have to move them with the ball quicker.
" I was a little bit disappointed with our second-half, we didn't get little Bridgey (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson) on the ball enough deep in that deep hole. That is due to the fact that we didn't have as much possession as we did on Tuesday night though. Without being too critical of little Bridgey, he needs the ball and we didn't get it to him often enough. "
" I think that Cleveland (Taylor) has had a break and a breather because he had 90 minutes on Tuesday night. He is looking quite effective at the minute isn't he, he is beating his men on regular occasions, we still have to get that quality of cross, we got it across on Tuesday, we probably didn't get it across today.
" It was encouraging though because we won't come up against teams as good as this we would hope in our league. I think that our overall attitude is half-decent and I think that we are definitely improving. This just gives us a realisation that we aren't the finished article and there is still lots and lots of hard work to be done on the training field.
" There is a not a striker imminent at the minute but again, while everyone will be enjoying their Sunday dinner I will be out watching a game somewhere tomorrow. Hopeful of again seeing another striker play, and the same with Dennis (Booth), and there are lots of enquiries going in again.
" We have to wait for that one to happen, it is not imminent but there is still massive work going on behind to try to get one in. I can't say if we will have someone in before the season starts because I don't know, seriously. I would hope so, we really want that fourth striker, the goalscorer, but Dennis hasn't been at the game again, today he has been watching someone.
" We are trying to make one happen, we are not desperate to try to make one happen because we wanted to give our lads an opportunity, and they are playing reasonably well at the moment. We do want that one in though that everybody is talking about. (jokes) I am a little bit disappointed that you watched him (Jason Walker) for a full season and don't tell me until Doncaster have actually got him on trial, so there you go. "