Head Coach Adrian Heath

On how he’s previously mentioned getting off to a fast and how disappointed he was in tonight’s start …

“I don’t think we started bad. At all. I thought we finished bad. We didn’t start bad. We ended bad. Didn’t have enough threat going forward. All evening. But, no. It certainly wasn’t the start.”

On playing Robin Lod with the group up front and if he got the kind of movement he was looking for out of the attacking players …

“We were poor in the forward areas. As I said, there’s two sides to every game of football. One of it is with the ball and one of it is without. And we only wanted to do the with tonight. And we still wanted to play comfortable and safe football with the ball as well. Didn’t want to get out of our comfort zone. Didn’t want to play the ball forward without the ball. And, didn’t do enough when the opposition had the ball. All in all, very, very poor and disappointing evening.”

On what problems it imposed having to reconfigure the entire back four …

“Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t stop your running. Doesn’t stop your fighting. Doesn’t stop your being first to the ball. Winning first headers. Winning second balls. It doesn’t matter who plays. Obviously, you would prefer to keep a balanced team. You would prefer to keep so called better players, but, that would be an excuse this evening. And I’m not giving excuses out.”

On DJ Taylor’s status …

“He had a little cramp late on in the game.”

On if he got a look at Ramon Abila’s red card …

“No. No. But, if he’s punched him, then you’re going to get sent off. Can’t do it these days. Too many cameras. VAR. All the stuff that we know. So, if he’s done it, serves him right and he’s cost the rest of the group as well.”

On Michael Boxall and his prospects of going to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games …

“He’s got a problem at this minute in time and he probably won’t be going I would think.”

On how Robin Lod did in his first game back since returning with the squad from the 2020 UEFA European Championship …

“Okay. Looked tired. Obviously hasn’t done a lot since the end of the EUROs because he’s been injured and waiting for his green card process to go through. So, wasn’t ideal. But, you know, we thought we needed to freshen it up.”