Manager Graham Alexander was happy to see his side take all three points from a hard-fought home encounter against Bury.
Charlie Goode netted the winner following a goalmouth scramble on 86 minutes to make it ten points from a possible 12 over the festive period.
After the 1-0 success, Alexander provided his reaction to iFollow Iron.
ON THE WIN…
GA: I’m really pleased because it was a hard-fought game as expected. I didn’t expect anything different from Bury. Chris Lucketti knows us as well as any visiting manager will do, and I thought they were extremely well-organised and hard to break down. We struggled to find that little bit of quality in the final third to get that goal and always had to be wary of conceding because they have some good players in their ranks. We said at half-time about keeping our composure and patience, playing with a purpose but not rushing things too much, yet believing that it could take the whole game to get that goal and win 1-0. It turned out reasonably like that because sometimes you just have to grind opponents down and keep going. That’s what we did and it was a big three points for us, especially with the break coming up at the weekend, which will give the players a good chance to recover from their efforts over the festive period and relax a little before we crack on and get prepared for the next game.
"It was a great set-piece from Josh Morris, put into a fantastic area and Charlie Goode finished it off. We had to stick with it and we did that, and we’re really pleased to get the points."
ON KEEPING A CLEAN SHEET…
GA: We’re pleased with a clean sheet again too. It was a difficult game for us today. We had to be aware because I still felt they carried a threat at all times and we had to be disciplined in our approach. We couldn’t just go gung-ho with seven or eight players attacking because we could have got hurt, so we tried to balance that out. I felt there was a little bit of zip missing but it’s understandable after two games in three days. I felt we were getting disappointed too quickly on little things and we’re normally pretty good at overcoming that. At half-time we had to settle everyone down and realise what it was going to take to win the game. It was a great set-piece from Josh Morris, put into a fantastic area and Charlie Goode finished it off. We had to stick with it and we did that, and we’re really pleased to get the points.
ON CHARLIE GOODE’S IMPACT…
GA: I thought when he came back into the team it took him maybe one-and-a-half games to get back to what he was doing before, but in the last two or three games he’s been fantastic. He’s been aggressive and on the front foot, he’s kept his football simple and made good decisions, showing a real desire to stay in the team.
ON MAKING TWO CHANGES TO THE SIDE…
GA: It was our second game inside three days, so we tried to freshen the team up with some fresh legs but not make wholesale changes so we lose momentum. It was a difficult one but I looked at the players when we trained on Sunday, looked at the stats and tried to have a second-guess of what the game would look like today and what we might need later in the game. I told Hakeeb (Adelakun) and Hops (Tom Hopper), who came out of the team, that it was nothing to do with performance and if the game was 24 hours in front we’d have gone with the same team but we needed a little bit of fresh energy. I said to both they would almost certainly come on in the game and we’d need that freshness and the way they’ve been playing in the last few games to hopefully win the match. They both came on and added to the performance. We changed the shape and brought Bish (Neal Bishop) on, going 4-4-2, and that gave us more momentum in the forward areas and Bury something different to think about. Fortunately, we won the game so we’re really happy. It takes more than 11 players to win a game of football and that was the case today.
ON THE RECOVERY AHEAD OF PORTSMOUTH…
GA: My arm’s been twisted to give them a couple of days off, so we’ll get back to work later in the week. There is a long way to go and we haven’t done anything yet. I think it’s a good time for us to have a little break from each other, and have some family time to recharge the batteries. The players have worked really hard and have been really stretched in the last few weeks, but their endeavour and work ethic has been phenomenal. Hopefully, when we enter the next game we’ll be fully charged and have a couple of bodies back to really strengthen the squad, because we know we have a real tough game coming up against Portsmouth.
ON THE INJURY SITUATION…
GA: I think Rory McArdle is the closest one and he might be training later in the week, so with us not having a match at the weekend he might be in contention for the Portsmouth game. Luke Williams will be another week ahead with a further week’s training, while Andrew Crofts might possibly train next week but we’ll see how that is. Kyle Wootton is back from his loan at Stevenage and is injured at the moment. We’re trying to get him back to full fitness and we’ll look to see how he is when he returns to training.
ON THE PASSING OF ANGELA PARKER…
GA: It was terrible news. I found out after the Blackburn game. I remember Angela when I was here as a player and she was really close to one of my mates Jason White, who she loved. He was invited around for dinner by her and her husband. When I came back, she introduced herself really quickly and was with us virtually every day in the restaurant. She was a fantastic supporter, and her personality and support for the club was unwavering. She was always supportive of us, even if we had bad results. She was a fantastic character, and the players/staff were really close to her. When we found out she’d passed away, it was sad news and we wanted to mark the occasion today. It was a short period of time to do anything official but the lads and staff wanted to wear black armbands to mark her passing because people like that are the lifeblood of any football club and make the work put in day-in day-out worth it when you see them smiling. We’ll miss her.