THE introduction of Grays striker Jamie Slabber eight minutes from the end of their 1-0 defeat to Morecambe on Saturday was greeted with ironic cheers by sections of the New Rec faithful who had been calling for the ex-Spurs trainee to be brought on for much of the second half.
Blues boss Frank Gray refused to be swayed by the Blues supporters though and afterwards revealed he had no regrets on not throwing Slabber on earlier.
He said: "Sometimes you can change things for sake of changing things and it doesn't always work. Also it's difficult for the players going on to expect them to change things in a short space of time. I'm not one of these who believes in changing things for the sake of it just because you are losing.
"If I feel the time is right to change it I will but today I thought the players out there were good enough to get us back into the game."
Gray admitted he was deeply disappointed by the performance and feels his side never got going.
"That's right, we never got going today," he said. "We didn't put many passing movements together. We didn't create many chances. Overall we didn't play today like we can play.
"We didn't play particularly well last week and we didn't play well today. It is important now we put things right as soon as possible."
Gray continued his usual custom of de-briefing with his players on the pitch afterwards and it was clear a few strong words were said by some of his senior players.
"We are always open to players putting their views over if they don't you don't learn much," said Gray. "The players who do put their views over did so in no uncertain terms about where things are going wrong and how we can improve and we welcome that."
By Ryan Goad
Thanks to the Thurrock Gazette for the report.
|