Lee Clark Talks About The Game

Last updated : 19 January 2011 By Thetashkentterror

Lee Clark
Huddersfield boss Lee Clark spoke to BBC Radio Leeds and his club's official website after his side's 4-0 Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Area Final first leg defeat at Brunton Park against Carlisle, Clark suggesting the game was a "car crash incident" for the Terriers :


"Everything went wrong today, there is not a plus point to take out of the game, but I'm the manager and I have to take full responsibility for that. So, we get back on the training field and work hard, but never mind the game being a wake-up call - it was a car crash incident, so we need to heed the warnings and we need to put it right ASAP.

"It will help us tonight, without a doubt it will help us, it has got to, The only good thing about today's result is that it should help us for the rest of the season, it has to, we got totally outplayed in every department. In every aspect of the match Carlisle were better than us whether we had the ball or didn't.

"We were just totally outdone in every aspect of a football match tonight, without the ball we were poor, we didn't close down, we had no energy, they were winning headers, smaller players winning headers against my bigger players and what I thought was a more physical team.

"They ran harder than us, they pressed harder than us, they fought harder than us, they passed it better than us, they shot better than us, they crossed better than us and their set-pieces were better than ours. Despite that, ultimately I am the manager and I have to take the responsibility."



"As a team we have to make sure that we don't suffer an experience like that again. I don't think the tie is over but it is a massive mountain which we now have to climb. I have been in football long enough but what we certainly have to do is play so much, much better than that.

"Carlisle are in a great position and are in the driving seat, an unbelievable position and we now have it all to do back in Huddersfield - I would never give anything up with one game still to play but we will have to perform so much better than that.

"Alex Smithies is due to have a cartilage operation tomorrow after picking up an injury at the end of the Walsall game. That will mean that he will miss either a month, or two months, depending upon the success of his recovery.

"Tamas Kadar will also be out for a couple of weeks after suffering a slight hamstring tear, and his proposed replacement for tonight Liam Ridehalgh, reported ill today, which left us with a slight problem. However, those weren't the reasons why we lost the game tonight."



"I am not worried about losing Alex (Smithies) as I know Ian Bennett will deputise excellently as he has done previously this season. The answer is not to keep delving into the transfer market, these players are good enough to achieve what we set out to do, so my job is to now work with them and produce a good result on Saturday.

"Sadly the players have underperformed massively tonight and it is now my job to pick them back up and get them back on track. Whether I picked the wrong team, the formation, I may have played the wrong system, I am the manager so it is on my head is a performance like that.

" So, I have got to take that responsibility and accept it and make sure that it doesn't happen again, and make sure the players work very, very hard to make sure that Saturday is a different result. However, that doesn't excuse the goals we conceded tonight, which were very poor goals to concede. At the end of the day it is 11v11, and it is about winning your personal battles, and I think it is fair to say that tonight Carlisle won eleven personal battles."