In the absence of Head Coach Lee Johnson, Jamie McAllister took charge of the final pre-season friendly against Hull. He spoke about young players, new signings and positives from pre-season.
GOOD TEST
“I thought it was a good game, a good test for the lads. I thought the lads dealt with them really well in the first half, I thought they played some great stuff and created some great chances. The goal was a great goal, a great little ball through and a great finish by Ross, good to get the big man on the scoresheet. There were some real positives from the game. The young lads came on again and impressed. They’ve had a lot of minutes and a lot of exposure over pre-season and that’s been really pleasing. The young lads have done well over the course of pre-season so it’s good to see.”
STRIKERS HITING FORM
“Exactly, it’s always nice, it was good to see Griggy on the scoresheet and score the winner in the last minute. I thought in the first half we dominated, second half Hull had a spell but I thought we weathered it well. The goal we can look at and do better, we’ve got to show him outside rather than let him cut on the inside of us, but apart from that Patto didn’t have much to do. As I say the young lads were brilliant. A lot of people were playing out of position tonight as well and we had to manage some minutes with some lads who were nursing a few little niggles. A real positive before the first game of the season."
ILLNESS
"No, it’s not (easy) but you’re always going to have little bumps in the road and little problems, we’ve just got to find solutions. The lads, they’ve been brilliant all pre-season and it’s good that as I say, the young lads have impressed. Callum Doyle was outstanding again, he’s came in and been excellent so we move on to next week off the back of a good win."
PLAYING STYLE
"We work on it a lot, patterns of play and it was nice to see it happen in the game. You saw it a lot in the first half, as I say the second half they had a little spell in the game but our shape was good, good distances and the press looked really good. They won the game in the last minute with a great bit of quality from Hawkesy, Flanno getting up and being aggressive at the back post with a good header and then Griggy, just nice to see what he does best. It was nice to see him on the scoresheet and getting the winner. But as you say, both strikers got the goals and we look forward to next week.”
HARD WORK
“Yeah, so the lads will have a couple of days off now, and regroup and go again on Monday. It’s some more minutes under the belt and the lads have worked their socks off all pre-season. It’s been a tough pre-season for them, physically but also tactically. With the new lads coming in, getting them integrated, Corry Evans slotted in nice tonight so a lot of positives.”
NEW SIGNINGS
“We need strength in depth and we know that, but from the coaching side of things we can only focus on the lads that are here and getting them ready for the games coming up. They've acquitted themselves really well in what has been a tough pre-season, the news lads have adapted to our new style of play.”
