Simmo Quotes After The Macclesfield Game

Last updated : 08 March 2006 By Thetashkentterror
Simmo speaks
United manager Paul Simpson spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Tuesday evening as he gave his thoughts on the first leg victory over the Silkmen in the LDV Vans Northern Area Final. It was a tough game as the Blues faced two opponents in Macclesfield and an awful Brunton Park playing surface :



" I’m satisfied with that, it was a really difficult night to play football. I don’t want to keep harping on about it but the pitch is absolutely shocking, it doesn’t help us and it doesn’t lend itself to football. It’s a case of just playing percentages and sticking the ball in forward areas and unfortunately it’s ugly at times.

" That’s what is getting the results though, that’s what has got it today. We’ve put the ball in the box, we’ve got little flick-ons, we’ve got set-pieces and we’ve put them done under pressure. If we keep winning games then we'll just have to accept the pitch.

" For their goal I thought it was a tremendous finish from their player, from (Andy) Smart I think it was. I was disappointed that he managed to run off our midfield and get in to that hole to have a strike on goal but we couldn’t do anything about that.

" We’ve shown character again though, we’ve battled away and in the second-half we’ve absolutely murdered them. They’ve had one chance where the midfielder (Danny) Whitaker has had a chip which has gone over, apart from that we’ve put them under all sorts of pressure and I think in the end we’ve deserved it.



" They showed what they wanted to do the way they set up with one upfront and trying to just flood the midfield and block it up as much as they could. When they’ve got players like Whitaker though who can make runs from midfield and (Martin) Bullock who has got pace down one side and Smart on the other then they’ve got players who can join in. We weathered it though and as I say I think we deserved it because of the pressure we put them under in the second-half.

" When we go down to their place it is a better surface to play on, hopefully it won’t be frozen like the last time, we’ve just got to go and be positive. I wanted to come out and win the game tonight, not because we are at home, but just because I don’t feel that in our game you can go and try approach it to get a draw in the first one and go and win it in the second game.

" I think you’ve got to go out to win every game, that’s exactly the way we will approach the second leg. We’ll be positive and hopefully our forward players can do the job again and we can keep it tight at the back. We are creating chances, we are putting balls in the box, whether it is crosses from open play or from set-pieces, we’ve Zigor’s (Aranalde) long throw. We’ve got a lot of armoury to go and stick things in there and we’ve just to keep working.

" We’re half way there, that’s the thing, we’ve done the job right and have got a win in this first game. There is still a hell of a lot of work to do and we’ll worry about that when the next one comes. "