Fresh off the emphatic 3-0 victory on the road at Reading the gaffer had a lot to speak about, including Ellis Simms’ injury, Patrick Roberts stepping up and Jack Clarke getting amongst the goals again.
INJURY IMPACT ON GAME
“It's tough, especially with Ross Stewart out, we lost a lot of physicality. The team’s not the biggest and strongest anyway but it’s pretty technical so we had to just keep moving the ball really. Right from kick off we gave them problems with possession and keeping the ball off them so it wasn't a major problem for us other than any corners and set plays could be a major problem but listen I'm delighted for them tonight they worked really hard.”
STEPPED UP
“We worked a lot after we lost Ross, we didn't score against Middlesbrough and we came into that game second half and had a lot of the ball but couldn't score so we done a lot of work making sure that doesn't become a common thing, we need people to step up and Patrick stepped up tonight and the wide attackers really stepped up because obviously Jack scored as well.”
PATRICK ROBERTS
“Some brilliant goals I have to say, the quality is there you see it in training and yet they are quite diminutive and small and yet wonderful technique you know with Patrick Roberts the ball is stuck to his foot in training it’s amazing to watch him. Delighted for him, we needed him in the hour of need, the strikers were disappearing in front of our eyes and he stepped up and did what he could do.”
END PRODUCT
“Listen, he needs goals. I said to Patty how are you not in the eleven of this football team and he laughed. It wasn't a laugh, it was more of a recognition that he probably needs to push on and show everybody, I had a few calls from people who started at City with Patrick and told me he was magic an I was lucky to have him so I've been interested to work with him and they're not far away but he needs to add end product, it's no good being a lovely footballer with no shots, no goals, no assists. He has to add them and today he came to the party and let's hope that's a consistent thing as we move forward and I'm sure it will be.”
JACK CLARKE
“Well he's scored an amazing goal against Rotherham a couple of weeks ago and scored a great goal tonight so I hope so. I think he found it difficult to find the ball as much as Patrick on his side of the pitch and he got a little bit frustrated. I'm more interested on them nights where he's not devastating with his talent. He works hard and he gets back and he tracks wing backs or full baks and he did that.”
HARD WORK
“They all need to know that talent doesn't get you anywhere really, there's so many players in the world who've been amazing footballers and probably never kicked a ball in a league match so Jack has to work hard for this team and he's doing that and I hope he's feeling the benefits of it because if you can score the goals like he's scored over the last few matches, hopefully he realises that running back towards his own goal is as important as the goals that he's scoring because he has the athleticism, the legs and the aerobic capacity to run and sprint the length of the pitch like he's showed and score goals like he has.”
LATEST ON ELLIS
“It’s his big toe, I think it's the joint he wasn't able to push off. He was really struggling and obviously the big toe is your most important toe down there if you're going to sprint and push off the mark. He’ll probably have it x-rayed tomorrow, we’ll see we've gotta get through Saturday and then there's a wee break so fingers crossed it won't be a bad injury.”
