Archived News from February 2023
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CLOUGH AND NEIL WOOD REACTION
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Nigel Clough told Jake Garner for BBC Radio Nottingham and iFollow Stags, Sat 25 Feb 2023 Every word transcribed: “They were better than us from the first minute to the last and I thought they played some very good stuff. “I am not very enamoured with the goals we conceded, but they caused us problems from the first minute and the lad on the right was as quick and dangerous as anything we've seen in this league and we couldn't cope with it. “Having been solid for a week, sometimes it's a bit easier to be like that away from home, they looked as though they could score almost at will today. “They (Bolton on the right, Barry on the left) were too good, they were too quick and too sharp for us. When you're at home you want to get on the front foot and try to press. Maybe if we'd been away from home we'd had sat in a bit more and made it a bit easier to deal with. I think they enjoyed playing on our pitch more than their own. “They got a two goal start, although we get back into it, but the two after half-time absolutely killed us. “At 3-1 we tried to make the substitutions but the fourth came along so quickly as we were trying to get reorganised. “Hopefully we've got all the rubbish out the way in one game, and we have been so good for the last five games or so. "It’s just three points gone, you can lose 1-0 in a scrappy game and you’ve still lost the same three points and that’s what we’ve done today. "Start again next week, it’s one bad day, beaten by a very good team. "I don't think it was tiredness, I just think missing good players caught up with us today. Everyone filling in has been playing at their absolute maximum to get those results, and the second they can't quite do that, you see what happens today. It wasn't a lack of effort, it looks that way sometimes because they were just sharper than us. “With the seven or eight missing today it would have been nice to play them with a full strength side, but we're not going to have that for a few weeks. “We might have George Maris back next week. "Riley Harbottle was ill before the game. He told me he was fit but he obviously wasn't, so I should have taken that out his hands before the game. “It's been a difficult week in terms of training because we can't have a normal week and be full-blooded as we're petrified of getting further injuries. "We are now going to have to take that chance. That's the way that we've been training for the last 18 months or 2 years, and take our chance with injuries. "It's very difficult to do that when you know you've only got 12 people training. “Up to 4-1, I thought it was even in terms of chances. I thought Jordan had a great chance early on. We had a couple of situations even before they scored where we should have done something. "Christy Pym's made a couple of good saves. But it's all late on when it's already 4 or 5-1. "It was pretty even for a while and we didn't take our chances certainly. "But it was more concerning at the other end. We were talking to the players in the week about being solid and restricting the opposition, and it was quite the opposite today. “It (the game) is finished already, can't do anything about it. We’ve lost three points and we move onto next week. “All our thoughts are on training for next week and getting the team right. “We were 4-0 at Carlisle and it’s the sort of reverse of that today, and at Tranmere last week. Tranmere have bounced back and had a great win. Carlisle have bounced back and had a great win, and we’ll bounce back next week. "They (the injured players) are coming along as expected at the moment. Louis Reed and Rhys Oates are maybe a little bit ahead. "I wouldn't think anyone else else will be anywhere near for next week. So we have to get through it and get on with it. That's all we can do. “(Stephen McLaughlin) was out on the grass this week and did a little bit but his ankle is not right yet. I think it’ll be another few weeks until it settles down completely and he feels comfortable. "He's our first choice left back but I think the pace of the lad on the right today would have scared anybody. "We put our quickest two players there today, Jordan Bowery, although he's not a defender, he's one of our quickest players, and then Elliott Hewitt, and he still went past both of those. "Somebody in the crowd shouted 'why isn't Kieran Wallace left wing back?' and I thought poor Kieran if he'd been out there today, we would have had even more problems! "It's a bad hour and a half, a bad two hours. It happens in football. "I've said to the players get over it and move on. If you can't deal with it, don't be in football, as everyone is going to lose. Get over it and get on with it." ------------------------ REACTION: Mansfield Town 2-5 Salford City https://salfordcityfc.co.uk/mansfield-town-2-5-salford-reaction-250223/ A fantastic performance by Salford City resulted in a 5-2 win away at Mansfield Town in Sky Bet League Two. The Ammies ended a run of three games without a win thanks to a brace by Matty Lund and goals from Callum Hendry, Luke Bolton and Theo Vassell. Lund and Hendry were two of four changes made by Neil Wood, with Ryan Leak and Louie Barry also given the nod, and they re-paid that faith with two goals in the space of a few minutes. Lund rose highest to meet an Ibou Touray cross after 18 minutes to score against Mansfield for a third straight game, before Hendry rifled home a deflected Elliot Watt cross. Mansfield pulled one back before the break when Davis Keillor-Dunn knocked in a loose ball, but Hendry and Barry both had chances to extend the lead again. That came in the second half when Bolton slid a finish low past Christy Pym, and five minutes later Lund doubled his tally with another thumping effort. Vassell equalled his best scoring season by rising highest in the last 10 minutes to head in a Watt corner, although Mansfield scored another consolation when Jordan Bowery converted from close range. Salford leapfrog Mansfield into sixth in the league, and Neil Wood was happier with the result. “A very pleasing afternoon, it’s always nice to win but scoring five goals... We were very good, I thought the performance was very good, I thought the way we stuck to the game plan and really made it hard for Mansfield, we made them work. “We could have scored more, maybe eight or nine goals by the end of it. “It’s the benefits of having a squad. It’s difficult for 11 players to play every game, it’s not possible in this league, there’s just no way, there’s too many games and it’s a really physical league. “That’s what we need, we need lads that can come in and make an impact, put their mark on the game when they play. “It brings massive confidence because if you look at Mansfield they’re a team that have been consistently in the play-offs, they’ve got experience of being in the play-offs in this league and they’re a strong team. They’re a good team, big crowd that gets behind them, nice pitch, lovely stadium so it’s big for our confidence because it shows we can come away, take the pressure, deal with the pressure, and to put in a performance like they did is so good for us all to see.” ------------------------ Good hiding for someone had been coming said Salford City boss Neil Wood after big win at Mansfield Town chad.co.uk, By John Lomas, Sat 25 Feb 2023 Salford City boss Neil Wood watched his charges destroy Mansfield Town 5-2 in today's big showdown at the One Call Stadium and said the result had been coming. City had failed to win in three games but it all came together in this one as they leapfrogged the Stags in the play-off places. “I have been waiting for a day like this as I knew if we got everything clicking then we were due to give someone a good hiding. I just expected it before now,” he said. “We were three without a win but we felt no pressure coming into the game. https://www.chad.co.uk/sport/football/good-hiding-for-someone-had-been-coming-said-salford-city-boss-neil-wood-after-big-win-at-mansfield-town-4041721 “We have not been on the floor. The goal was offside at Harrogate and at Swindon they had one shot on target and beat us. “Results have not gone our way in the last three games but we knew there were elements of our performances that were really good. “We have stayed positive and kept working hard. We still want to get better.” He continued: “I was delighted with that. It's nice to win a game, but to win it in that manner and score five goals was great and fully deserved. If I am being picky we could have scored more. “The lads at the back were brilliant and set the foundations of how we wanted to play today. And we were a real threat going forward. “We did our homework on Mansfield and we knew they'd have a back five and we needed to break through their lines - and we did it with consistency and quality. “I just had to select the best team that would be the most dangerous going up against that and cause the most problems. “If I am going to be disappointed with anything it would be conceding the second goal late on as I don't think we should have done. It was frustrating.” ------------------ |
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