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" I thought we were excellent today. We were disappointed to concede the first goal, it was a poor goal, we didn’t close the ball down soon enough and Taff (Anthony Williams) is disappointed that he didn’t save it but we’ve shown some real character and come back at it. Karl’s (Hawley) finishing was excellent today and I’m delighted for him, he maybe should have had a hat-trick if we’re going to be greedy and we’re going to be picky but we’ll take a win here because it’s a big result for us.
" Karl Hawley was outstanding today, he’s worked his socks off. It’s a difficult role that lone striker and he’s worked hard over recent weeks. I think he came back for pre-season after having a big kick up his backside at the end of last season missing out on the play-off final and he’s showing everybody that he wants to be playing. There has been a lot of talk about me wanting to bring a striker in but if he carries on like that his place is definitely not under threat and hopefully he can keep getting goals for us.
" Playing the way that we are gives the two wider midfielders licence to go and get forward and I thought Adam Murray did and Chris Lumsdon is getting his fitness back and getting his sharpness and looking stronger each game. Although people might think of our system as a bit negative it isn’t the way we want to play it because it allows those midfielders to get forward, get past Karl Hawley and the two wider ones Raph (Raphael Nade) and Brendan (McGill) to join in in attacking areas and today it has worked for us and hopefully it will continue. "
On Zigor Aranalde’s strike, Simmo commented :
" Zigor keeps threatening to do that, he scores goals in training and we keep saying to him to go and get him himself on free-kicks and smash things in and it’s great reward for him, (it's) lovely to see that because he is such a good pro and he put us in a really strong position. We were a bit nervy at the end with a silly penalty to give away but we clung on to get three valuable points. "
On today’s team effort Simpson said :
" We knew when we came back into the league that there was going to have to be a work ethic second to none and that is what is going on. They do it in training and I’m delighted with the attitude that they show. We really have got a good bunch of professionals. This morning when we were going out for a walk, we went out just to stretch the legs at 11.15am and as I looked round and saw them all I realised we have got a good bunch of pros here. It’s such a massive difference from when I first came into the club a couple of years ago and I’m delighted with it.
"We haven’t achieved anything, I’m not getting carried away, I’m not saying we’re there and we’re going to be this and we are going to be that. We’ve still got a hell of a lot of hard work to do but after nine league games I’m delighted that we are second in the table. I want to keep going, I want even more results, I want even more wins, I want to start doing it at home on a regular basis and when we’ve got that then come the end of the season if the table is still the same then I will smile then.
On Raphael Nade’s late substitution Simmo commented :
" He just ran himself into the ground out there today, I thought he was excellent for us, he worked hard and he put the full-back under pressure. He’s got that height which causes problems to full-backs and he just tired at the end and got cramp and we had to take him off but there won’t be any problem there. "