John Ward On A Point At Brighton

Last updated : 24 November 2007 By Thetashkentterror

John Ward
United boss John Ward spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey following the 2-2 draw at Brighton this afternoon, Ward suggesting that his players gave an improved performance today after their disappointing efforts in the FA Cup and Johnstone's Paint Trophy recently :


" Myself and the players in the dressing-room are disappointed we didn't get all three points but the circumstances are, it's the old football cliché, if you'd have asked me at 2 o'clock then I'd have said that it was a good point. I've already been asked on my way up here if it was two points lost or one point gained. I think that if you look at the league table then we have got one point more than we had this morning.

" This is against a side that has only had one defeat in fourteen, and I think when you look at our last three or four league games against Southend, Leeds and Luton, and now here they have been really tough fixtures. We've come through them quite well against teams that are going to be competing at the top. So, in all, the general performance was a good one from us and a good effort from us but I've got a dressing-room that is equally as disappointed as you may be because they have not won. So that tells us we are doing some things right.

" The sending off, when you are 2-1 up and there is a home player sent off everyone expects you to dominate the game. What we have done is that we've not really dealt with the ball as well as we probably did in the eleven v eleven when we have passed it better. We have probably got a little bit edgy on the ball, their second goal resulted from an edgy clearance from (David) Raven when we should have really just cleared the lines.

" It's their only one shot since they went down to ten men that we have had to face. Of course it has gone in so it makes it a poor result in that respect but I'm fine with the general effort from the team. We've been criticised quite rightly over the cup displays and they have been poor, but we've bounced back today with a really good effort, a good performance and some decent football. What is in the end of it, come tomorrow morning, is a decent result at a good side.

" They are a strong side playing well, they are three points behind us and there is a lot made of that when you are coming into the game. What we've said is that if we can't get six points away from them then don't let them get any closer. We've managed to do that and we've now got to push on ourselves and see if we can improve on that performance and not quite be as sloppy that and take it on. I think there are a lot of positives in there, I still feel disappointed that we have not won it but it's a decent effort.

" I'm pleased with all the contributions because from Tuesday was a big disappointment for us at Grimsby going out of the FA Cup. We've made three or four changes to the line-up and we feel that it was a positive move bringing (Joe) Anyinsah and (Simon) Hackney in there against their wide players and their full-backs who are in really good form at this particular time. We've tried to push them on onto theirs and take the game back to Brighton and we've managed to do that, so I'm happy with that.

" Certainly happy with Richard Keogh, nice and strong, good steel, good competition with my two centre-backs and Bas Savage in there, so it's a good effort. As far as I am aware I don't think that there are any other League One fixtures next Saturday so we are not going to lose any other ground on it. We'll play a week on Tuesday and I can't do anything about that at the moment. We've gone out of the cup, it's our fault we haven't got a game next Saturday and we've just got to put up with it.

" We've had three good days, we hit Thursday and we had a little bit of a pop at the players but we went in and said what we were going to do. We said that we needed three big days and the biggest day has to be Saturday because that is the most important. We've found the boys responding to that today and despite the bitter disappointment that we have not won the game there are a lot of good things that we can push on with. The players are listening and trying hard to do what we are asking from Greg (Abbott) and myself so that is good news. "