Iron manager Graham Alexander was not happy with his side’s start against Gillingham, in a game they lost 3-1 at Glanford Park.
United fell behind in the first-half, with Josh Morris equalising towards the beginning of the second period. However, the away side went on to score two more goals to collect all three points.
Alexander gave his reaction after the defeat to iFollow Iron.
ON THE 3-1 DEFEAT…
GA: It was not good enough at all, if I am being honest. We didn’t get any tempo into the game in the first 45 minutes. We were sloppy and slow. We gave them a goal, which gave them the lead and a boost in momentum. I don’t think they particularly deserved a goal at that time. We should have had a penalty just before half-time because he was in the box and we believe that it should have equalised the game. The last thing I want to do is put our destiny in control of or in the hands of other people. We have to be better in what we did. We had a great spell 20 minutes into the second half when we played at a tempo. We have to learn from that and we got the equalising goal, deservedly. We created chances throughout the game, even in the first half when we were not at our best. Then we have given a couple of real sloppy goals away, and if you do that at any level you are going to get punished.
ON THE START OF THE SECOND HALF…
GA: That should have been the kickstart of us going on to win the game. We train everyday at a tempo and it was lacking today in the first half. We talked about that before the game, about starting the game aggressively and on the front foot, but it didn’t materialise at all until we went 1-0 down. Even then, it was still a little bit too late. In the second half, we started as we should have done in the first. That is something that we need to do better without a doubt because it is not the first time. We have to take on board that if we don’t do the things we work on day in, day out, then that is going to be the result of it. That is a performance that wasn’t good enough, even though we had the best opportunities and a lot of them, but we have only scored the one.
ON UNCHARACTERISTIC GOALS CONCEDED…
GA: Our record shows that we are not like that. We are going to have to take the pain we feel over the weekend. Against any opposition, if you give opportunities away like that, which we did, then it is going to happen.
ON TEAM SELECTION FOR DONCASTER ON TUESDAY...
GA: We talk about the competition within the team. It is difficult for me to analyse now with the emotions going through so quickly after the game. I want to analyse it over the weekend with my staff. This is what we talk about – good performances keep the shirt and keep you in the team. We haven’t performed as well as we can and we certainly haven’t got the result we wanted. That is something for me to look over, but I’m not one for kneejerk reactions. There has been a lot of good stuff and there will still be a lot of good stuff from the players that played today. We have to make sure that we do the right things for the team on Saturday. We certainly have to start the game better.
ON NEEDING A REACTION FROM HIS SIDE…
GA: We try to move on from each game really quickly, win or lose. We have to do that, considering we have got Doncaster on Tuesday at home.
ON GRASSROOTS DAY…
GA: There was a lot of noise and atmosphere coming from them and it is great to see that. We have done a lot of good things over the last two seasons.
See much more from Graham Alexander on iFollow Iron. Click here to sign up.
Click here to access our Iron v Gillingham match centre.