Alex Pritchard was pleased to get a win against AFC Wimbledon in his first league start, but believes there is still room for improvement...
WIN
“Yeah, very good, obviously from the team’s point of view today it was a bit tough sometimes, we made it tough for ourselves. But at the end of the day its three points and we go again. There’s still a lot of new boys coming in even like myself, still trying to get match fitness and on a personal note it was good to start and get going really.”
DIFFICULT
“Of course it's been difficult but I think there's a lot of clubs out there who've had the same sort of issue. I think just today it’s a bit of relief, another three points in front of the crowd, the crowd were brilliant again. Coming away there’s a good atmosphere, there’s no negativity, we haven’t seen it yet. So, it’s just good to obviously stick together and we keep growing on the wins and keep going like that.”
CONTROL
“Well I wouldn’t say we controlled large parts of the game, I thought we were a lot better in the second half. I think we regrouped at half time and I thought the gaffer got us together and told us where we were going wrong. I felt like maybe we forced it and turned it into a bit of a basketball game at times and that probably didn’t really suit us. We got it in areas and created really good chances. It could have been three or four but it wasn’t, and we made it difficult for ourselves. Second half we kept believing, we sorted our shape out a little bit and it obviously came. I had one, the keeper pulled off some really good saves in the first half and obviously Winchy’s came up with a worldy. So it was good in a lot of parts but there’s a lot to learn.”
FANS
“Really good. I think we created problems for ourselves in the first half, I think we forced it a little bit but when we did go forward you could tell the fans get up and then teams drop. But we let Wimbledon get a hold of the ball and keep the ball for a lot of time today so we need to go away and look at it, re-evaluate and go again.”
EXCITEMENT
“I think obviously for the last two years, football’s missed the fans. It feels like a bunch of your mates just rent a pitch and then go out and play! But now you see the fans back they're really enjoying it. Good to see some football at the weekend, that’s what people live for. It gives you the extra boost to run an extra five yards. It’s really good just to see that and get that feeling back.”
LONG SEASON
“It’s tough. It is tough on the bodies. It’s going to be a long season but it’s not just Sunderland, is it? It’s everyone.”
