Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00There has been some criticism online and there were obviously some members of the away end in the stands that were gesticulating and venting a few frustrations but...
00:10Do you know what, I think it's an absolute disgrace, an absolute disgrace to the players that represent the football club and what they've done this season.
00:18So maybe before I was talking to my media guy, maybe he told me to stay away from it but now I meet it head on and it's a joke, it's a disgrace.
00:28So that's what you think of the players when we do have the good days, don't be clapping, go home, be consistent.
00:37So I appreciate all the support that we've had all season away from home and being outstanding at home as well.
00:43And we'll need it on Tuesday night because we've got to lift the players again because they're disappointed about what happened on Saturday.
00:52We had an opportunity of breaking a club record that's lasted about 350 years on Saturday afternoon and we just wasn't good enough.
01:01And do you know what, that's sometimes how football is.
01:05You can't put your finger on it, you can assess it and analyse it at half time and afterwards and you can be deeply disappointed like we all are and we all wear our heart on our sleeve.
01:16Myself, the club captain, as you know, the players that are giving everything for the football club to get us to 85 points in this position with six games to go.
01:25If it was happening every other week, if it was the group that I inherited last season that turned it in, didn't really want to, miles off of it, all that stuff, then I get that.
01:40But not this group, not this group, don't do it to them.
01:44Don't do it to me.
01:46So there it is.
01:47That's how it is.
01:49It'll bring us tighter together, the ones that we are and how we feel about it.
01:56And I'm sure you'll see a reaction in the players' performance.
02:00The week before it was outstanding and we were just off of it.
02:04And as I said, you know, you can't really put your finger on it.
02:07It was just too slow.
02:09I think there's certain situations, not excuses, that didn't help our cause.
02:14But we have to overcome all those challenges.
02:16If you want to be a top team, you want to achieve at the end of the season, there's all sorts of hurdles you have to get over.
02:21And Oxford away is not an easy game, in my opinion.
02:26They should have beaten Middlesbrough the week before.
02:29We didn't deal with a long throw.
02:31And give credit to the opposition, the opposition's manager.
02:34They made it really difficult.
02:35We had 75% possession.
02:37We had opportunities.
02:38And we just didn't find that quality.
02:39And we just didn't find that tempo.
02:40And we didn't find that rhythm.
02:42Made difficult by a slow pitch and the conditions, but no excuse.
02:47And we just didn't find that bit of quality.
02:49And if you had done, we'd have scored.
02:51Because we had enough of the ball and enough situations in and around their box.
02:54But we didn't find that quality.
02:56So we have to own that and take that on the chin.
03:01But it's just the world we live in now, I suppose.
03:04Whether it's social media or whatever.
03:06Everybody wants us to be winning every game.
03:09I think we'd all be extremely rich and possibly wouldn't be sat here
03:14if we knew the outcome of everything in life, not just on a football pitch.
03:18And we could gamble on stocks and shares and know what's going to happen there
03:23and do everything and bet and all that.
03:27Then maybe I wouldn't be sat here.
03:30Or maybe I would be.
03:32And maybe everybody else would be doing something different, spending the money.
03:36But football isn't like that.
03:39There's no guarantees.
03:41And we have to get back onto it.
03:43And I'm sure we will, knowing the reaction of the players
03:46when they came in Sunday morning after a long trip,
03:49when they came in really early Sunday morning,
03:51to assess and analyse and go through.
03:54And they had to feel that little bit of pain watching it back
03:56because we talked about it.
03:58And they accepted it and we accepted it.
04:00And we have to recognise that if that situation comes up again away from home,
04:04then we have to be better in handling that situation.
04:07I know the majority of situations away from home so far this season
04:10because that's the reason we had that opportunity of breaking a record
04:13that lasted for 350 years.
04:16So the final three games away from home,
04:19hopefully we'll do a little bit better than what we did on Saturday
04:23and replicate our away form that has been shown all season.
04:27You've got three home games to go now.
04:29Bearing in mind the conversation with what we've just had,
04:32what would your message be to those supporters
04:34that are going to Bramall Lane tomorrow night?
04:37At its best, Bramall Lane, as I've witnessed as a supporter,
04:42as a young supporter, as a ball boy, as a player
04:47and as a manager at its best,
04:50gives us a huge advantage and a huge boost
04:54and a huge push and a huge energy
04:57as seen in big games, what we've won over the years.
05:02So I can't demand or I can't force,
05:07but I know what I'd be doing if I were a supporter.
05:10I'd be getting right behind this team that sat in second,
05:13well not, we'd be top of the division, wouldn't we?
05:15If we hadn't had two points deducted,
05:17we'd have been top of the division,
05:19we'd have been on 85 points going into the last six games of the season.
05:24So I know what I'd have been doing,
05:25but I can't dictate or determine
05:27what everybody else's attitude towards us is.
05:30I think it's most probably always been there
05:33and it always will be there, but I know what I am.
05:37I'm a backer of my football club,
05:40I'm a backer of my football team
05:42because of what they're like and me knowing them in the way I do.