Shez upbeat despite defeat

ATHLETIC manager John Sheridan jumped to the defence of his players after they suffered their second league defeat of the season last night.

Sheridan’s side went down 2-0 against Bristol Rovers, but he insisted their performance at the Memorial Stadium was “excellent”.

He explained: “It sounds daft – and don’t get me wrong, we gave away two really bad goals – but I thought we were the better team.

“We had very good chances and lots of corners and attempts at goal. I’ve looked at the stats and we put in 38 crosses, so you would think we were playing at home.

“We were excellent and it frustrates me that we lost 2-0 because Lee Hughes, Reuben Hazell, Brett Ormerod and Chris Taylor all should have scored.

“We played well, but the problem was in both boxes because we made mistakes in our own and didn’t want to score enough in the other.

“I’m very annoyed with both goals, and the first one was down to people not doing a simple job properly.

“Their lad (Rickie Lambert) hit it from something like 25 yards, but we had seven or eight men behind the ball and no-one took responsibility for closing him down.

“The second was from a setpiece, it was a joke, and again it happened because people didn’t do what they were supposed to do.

“We need to do better, but in the second half we absolutely dominated the game and on another day we would have scored two or three goals.

“The two we conceded gave us a mountain to climb. We went hell for leather in the second half and just need to sharpen up.

“I hate to lose any game, but hopefully we’ll learn from our mistakes and put this behind us quickly.”

Sheridan handed a recall to young forward Deane Smalley and felt he more than justified his place in the starting XI.

The manager said: “Deane was excellent and he was in there because I can swap players around and feel confident they know what they are doing.

“We lost and people will have their opinions about the team, but it’s part of my job to pick whoever I think will win us a game.”

Athletic came through last night’s match with no new injuries and face another away test on Saturday when they travel to Swindon.