Cox post-Harrogate Town (A)

First team manager Neil Cox provided his reaction to iFollow Iron after United’s 6-1 defeat to Harrogate Town.

He said: “It was difficult, I’m unsure what to say really about that battering. I just have to keep my calm a bit, and not show my rage about what just happened. I’ve got to take it all in, go back and have a look at everything.

“The goals were preventable. We were opened up and they just put balls in our box - two of them came from our set plays. A little bit of know-how and professionalism was needed. It really is a difficult one to take.

“We didn’t get anything out of the game and there are no positives from this because they took their foot off it in the second half. 

"This is now about what we do as staff to get some belief back into them. We are naïve and we have players who don’t believe in themselves or in the team. We have to get those boys who are injured back in and get them on the pitch as soon as we can.” 

United were supported by a sell-out away following, and Cox said: “The anger they showed at us was right, and their frustrations at myself and the players was spot on. They work all week and they come out on the weekend to be entertained and we didn’t do that one bit." 

Midfielder Alex Perry was withdrawn during the warm-up and Cox said: “He got injured in the warmup and I was annoyed that I couldn’t bring him on. After 20 minutes I’d have brought him on and gone with three in midfield, we were getting over run in there and their two were miles better than our two on the day. We couldn’t have changed it and I wanted to keep the boys on, so they knew how I was feeling. They need to stay on and fight for their teammates and fight for their club. One or two had to come off because it wasn’t their day.”

On players returning from injury, he said: “Harry Bunn has been a difficult one and he got a massive kick at Newport which we didn’t see until we saw the video, which showed he got a whack just above the knee - it was worse than we thought. He was on the grass this morning, but we need that bruising to go down.

"Alex Kenyon is back on the pitch but obviously he is still well off because he’s been out for a long time now. He is our experienced midfield player so hopefully we can get him fit as soon as we can.” 

See much more from Neil Cox and Harry Davis on iFollow Iron.