Neil Thompson was left disappointed with Wednesday’s second-half display as we went down to a 1-0 defeat at Stoke this evening.
We had the better of the first half but hardly threatened after the break, leaving caretaker boss Thompson to reflect: “We never got started in the second half. We never got out of the traps and If you give any team encouragement like we did to Stoke tonight that pressure is going to tell.
“It was a disappointing second half, we didn’t get hold of the ball, didn’t pass it great and certainly for the first 20 to 25 minutes of that half we were under pressure.
“I thought we had weathered the pressure, we got first contact from the cross that led to the goal but we switched off on Fletcher and you can’t do that with him.”
Commenting on the first 45 minutes, he said: “The first half was like a boxing match, very nip and tuck. They had a couple of chances, we had a couple of great deliveries from set plays and should have maybe capitalised.
“When you do get them you’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net and we didn’t do that.”
He added: “You’ve got to be in the game and always ask the opposition questions. We didn’t ask them enough questions in the second half, that’s for sure, We couldn’t get any rhythm into our game.
“Now we’ve got to get ready for a big game against Birmingham on Saturday.”