Martin happy with performance against Ipswich
Martin Allen said he was delighted with all of his players following last night’s 2-1 pre-season friendly defeat to Ipswich at MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
for Mick McCarthy’s side with David McGoldrick having opened the scoring after 22 minutes courtesy of a well taken free-kick.sealed a last gasp winDavid October’s late strike
Cody McDonald equalised shortly after the re-start, and despite enjoying lots of possession, the Gills were unable to clinch the all-important second goal before October netted in the dying seconds.
Despite the defeat, Martin was encouraged by the performance and after the game he said:
“I thought it was a great game, there was some good possession in the first half. They had one melee of chances when Stuart made some good saves, it was a bit of quality to score from their free-kick but overall in the first half I thought we played very well.
“We changed it a little bit in the second half and played in a different way which created a lot of pressure, a great goal and we went looking for the winner.
“I’m delighted with all of them to be honest.
“The goal at the end did take the shine off it and I don’t think it was a fair reflection of how the game was. I was disappointed for the young lads because they ran themselves in to the ground.
“It was a big night for them to play in a game like this with the first team and it was good to see them out there.
"I don’t think we deserved to lose the game but we need to learn because we did have a few slips last year, lastminute.com so as coaches, managers and players it was perhaps a good reminder and we don’t want it to happen again.”
Martin was asked if he felt playing top quality sides in pre-season was an important part of the programme. He replied:
“I have to be honest; I don’t view Ipswich as having a team with really top quality. I don’t mean that in any disrespect to Mick McCarthy, the players or supporters of Ipswich.
"For me personally I believe our players are quality and we had several missing tonight with aches and strains, nothing too serious.
“For me we were better than them without a shadow of a doubt.
“Some of the players were playing their first 90 minutes and will play again on Saturday. We will put out the strongest team out that we can play.
“Weston had a tight hamstring so he didn’t play, Allen had a tight hip and Linganzi has been away from his family for a few weeks in France so I gave him a couple of extra days off and he comes back Wednesday and so will be available.
“Grant played in midfield – Butcher and Dack were on and it was good to see Callum Davies aswell, Muggleton is only 17 too.
"I watched it from up above in the first half which I really enjoyed and I’ve spoken to all my players individually in my office like an old headmaster before they went home.
“I wanted to give some feedback on where I think they’re at and now we look forward to Millwall."
Martin explained why he had watched the first half from the comforts of the executive boxes rather than from the dugout:
“I wanted to see the shape of our team and I thoroughly enjoyed it,", he said. "But I wanted to change it for the second half because we were 1-0 down so we changed it tactically. It worked very well, a masterstroke!
“I like watching them play and I’m very proud of them, they are a fantastic bunch of professionals.”
here.To watch Martin’s post match press conference click
You can view the best of the action by scrolling through our picture gallery at the top of this page.
Photography courtesy of Sport Images.