Here’s Lee Johnson’s reaction to our Papa John's Trophy draw with Bradford City…
PURPOSE
"It needed to serve a purpose for us. The fact that we already were through in the competition allowed us to make decisions based on the Ipswich game and the development of our younger players. Clearly some of our senior players were a little bit rusty, having come back from injury or little knocks and niggles, and will be better for it. Senior players have had a little sharpener which I'm happy with, and I'm happy with how the U23s who stepped up performed.”
OPPORTUNITY
"At half time you get an opportunity to coach a little bit and the main thing was our backline needed to be a lot more aggressive, a lot stronger, a lot more dominant in body and voice. When we showed that, it allowed our technical players to be closer and more compact. We're quick enough in that backline, so we could be that five or six yards higher. That's something we want to see more of at first-team level, we want that speed and power. We did show that I thought and to be honest, we should have scored three or four in that second half.
POSITIVES
"For me there were a lot of positives in preparation for that Ipswich game. We want to win games but we've also got to think about the project, and I've got to be brave and keep doing the right things no matter what the external feeling is at the time. The U23 players have contributed really well this year. I was alright with tonight. We wanted to use it help prepare for Ipswich, and it was really important with that. You could see a couple of our players were rusty and they will be much better for that game."
