Neil Young has called for more from his players as Marine look to bounce back to two straight defeats.
*This is a transcript from Off The Park’s interview with Marine manager, Neil Young. The Mariners are looking to bounce back from back-to-back defeats to Whitby Town and Hyde United. They host Matlock Town and Basford United, this weekend.
Thoughts on the last two games: “Very disappointed, we had a fairly good pre-season, went to Gainsborough – wasn’t happy with the performance.
“After the FC United game, I said people were getting excited about the result, I wasn’t playing it down but I said there was lots of things in the game which I didn’t like that we had been working on, those issues are still prevalent.
“We didn’t start well in the games so far, Whitby – team defensively not set-up. I think they had three shots on goal, three goals, second-half we changed it, had a right go and probably should’ve won the game on chances.
“But you can’t be 3-0 down at home and expect to win football matches. Hyde, same again, a goal down within a minute then you get yourself back into it. Then again, a few of them have to work harder if they want to be in my team, if you want to be in my team, the first thing you’ve got to do is run.
“I don’t like to make excuses but we’ve been on the back of some real bad decisions; Gainsborough [there] was some bad decisions, blatant penalty on Fin, Charley Doyle’s red card was laughable then you got to Saturday, you probably see the most blatant penalty you’ll ever see on Manny [Manasse Mampala].
“Against Hyde, we weren’t great which we won’t brush under the carpet but their second goal, which turned out to be the winning goal, there’s a man in our wall which is not allowed. Our wall isn’t great but the rule states he [the opposition player] has to be a metre away, it’s gone and we go on to lose the game.”
What has to be done to be improved: “I’ve said all along, we lost Matty [Brown], which was a big loss, that affected us defensively knowing Chris Doyle would be away for a week, it left us short. We are looking to recruit another centre-back.
“Charley Doyle leading up to the season informed me he would have to be working away and would not be available that often, when you have a plan for recruitment for players, Charley is a big part of that – he was my player of the year last year – them types of players are hard to replace.
“They’re two areas that we want to add to if we can, I’d like to add another player at the top of the pitch, we’ve got a good squad of players we’ve proven that but only in patches, we need to do it in 90 minutes and work harder.
“First thing is you have to work hard for 90 minutes, unfortunately we’ve only been doing it for patches and when we haven’t been doing it, we’ve conceded goals.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming weekend: “Two home games, tough games, every game is tough. If you look at the results [around the league], if you’re not right and ready you’re going to get beat simple as that. We’ve prepared for two big games at home over the weekend.
“Wins always change moods, the big thing for me, I want to see my expectations of what the team is. The fans possibly don’t see that, because rightly so they go watch the game but the things I haven’t been happy with are the ins and outs of possession, we have to do that more consistently.
“It’s a new group we’ve put together, that still doesn’t excuse people working as hard as I’d expect them to and I expect them to be working harder out of possession.”
