Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Boston At Edgar Street On Saturday April 20th Kick-Off 3.00pm

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Ward: "Game Of Two Halves"

Speaking to the official Cheltenham site, manager John Ward was not impressed with his side's performance:

"I don't do cliches normally but that was a 'game of two halves' from both teams possibly, although I should imagine Hereford will be happier with the 90 minutes than I am. The first half from our side was disjoined to put it mildly. I thought we were well off the pace and conceded two goals with the first couple of shots they had. If anything, I'm pleased it happened this week in a friendly rather than next week down at Swansea.

"However, at half-time we asked the team for a better response and they provided that so I suppose it's better that we go home with a bit of pleasure out of the game and a bit more encouragement. There was a better tempo about the game and I said that I didn't care about the result as long as we got a better impression from everybody. We did that and got the result out of it as well.

"I won't hide about the first half performance, I'm pretty honest I think, and in the first half hour my two centre-backs were all over the place. That surprised me because they were so strong towards the end of last season and in the play-off final itself. But we can't sit on that, we have to pick up again this season and in the first half it didn't happen. Second half we got the decision making a lot better and while I'm not blaming them for the performance, I'm certainly not blaming the three young lads who came off at half-time because that would be unfair as well.

"We demanded an improvement at half-time and people like JJ and Kayode lifted the pace at the front of the team and got hold of the ball. That in turn lifts other people and Finnigan and McCann became much more influential. They can have a big impact on games but to do that they need to have the ball and we didn't have enough of it in the first half. Credit to Hereford because they took their goals well and really gave us a kick up the backside in the first 45 minutes.

"Mickey Bell has picked up a calf strain and it's in the other leg to the one where he's had the heel problem. That can happen sometimes if you've had one injury you can get another if you try to compensate. Obviously we've got one or two other injuries as well and we will wait until Monday before deciding where we are going with those. We have the reserve team cup final from last season at Colchester on Tuesday and hopefully Brian Wilson will play in that one."