Glovers manager Gary Johnson last night believed that his side had not done enough to break down a resilient Doncaster Rovers side who nicked a 1-0 win at the hands of their former Conference rivals, to reverse the earlier season result at Belle Vue. Gary answered the following questions from the press after the game:
That was very tough Gary.
Yes, it was tough. To be fair to them, they set their stall out and were very strong at the back and we didn't show enough guile or good play to break them down. I can't remember too many shots coming in, too many crosses or too many chances, which is disappointing when you are at home. So I apologise for our lack of goalmouth incident. They were stronger than us at the back and we weren't good enough to break them down on the day.
The fans though will realise that this was a top of the table clash and with two good sides battling it out often one goal will do it.
Yes, it could hve gone either way. But I felt there were too many stoppages and too many whistles which meant that nobody could get a run of play going. The referee had to come off and that was another few minutes gone. The game seemed to be all about the referee and linesmen today and our whole time was spent watching them. But you can't blame that - all I can do is to blame us for not being able to break them down.
When the goal came, it didn't leave you with an awful lot of time.
It didn't but I thought we scored a perfectly good goal straight after that. People have people marking the goalkeeper and if he wants to run through somebody instead of running around them then we don't think that's a foul against us and we thought that was a good goal. It would have been a good time to get it back after their goal. We were disappointed with that because we felt it was a good bit of play on our part but we lost out because of somebody else's interpretation.
Gavin Williams was through as well.
Yes we thought he was through. But we didn't play well enough. You've got to create five or six chances at least and maybe ten to win a game. Then you can leave alone all of these incidents that could go either way and you're not left leaving things to chance. We didn't create enough and unfortunately that's why we've lost the game.
Was the 3-5-2 OK for you in this game?
Well it's easy with hindsight but I don't think too many people would have wanted me to change it after they'd seen the way we played against Bristol Rovers. It was a competitive match against a team that has got themselves a few points in the bag and didn't necessarily have to come out and win the game. But they did their job and were strong and kept us out of their penalty area.
There were eight yellows - was it that sort of game?
Well I don't think so. It was always going to be competitive but unfortunately this referee thinks that every foul is a yellow card and I don't think it is.
Is that a set-back? You're still in the playoffs.
Well other teams are also not putting runs together. Hull have had a good result, Donny have had a good result, but there is still the third spot to play for, and there is certainly still the playoffs to play for. Nobody seems to be putting in a run behind us. So that was the only saving grace of the day.
A bit of a long trip for you on Saturday at York.
Yes, but I am pleased it is not too far away in time. We need to get up there and some of our players need to perform more often. They can't perform one week and then have a night off every couple of weeks. They've got to perform consistently and because we haven't got that at the moment that's why we are where we are. Hopefully we can get enough consistent games out of them to keep us in the playoffs.
That also comes with experience though, if you look at what Doncaster had put out against you tonight. That's the sort of performance you would like away from home.
It is and sometimes we have put those kind of performances together, away at Doncaster, away at Mansfield and away at Hull. We've also done home to Lincoln and home to Swansea. There are games in which we've done well in, it's just the consistency. I'm just disappointed that we didn't do enough. We haven't entertained today and no-one has entertained me. We didn't have a good run or a good pass or a good shot or a bit of bravery in the box and I don't like that. We tried to do a little bit more in the second half but it was without the end product. There was no end product at all and that's not just the forwards, that's everyone. Who had a shot? I can't remember a shot.
What was the incident at the top of the field with Gall. Did the officials explain that?
He said that he didn't stamp on him, he trod on him and that was the reason why it was a yellow and not a red. He trod on him but it wasn't aggressive. I wasn't happy with all of that, but I can only try and do something about my team. I can't do anything about the team in black.
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17 March 2004 : 
