Manager’s thoughts on defeat to Ipswich
Mark Robins described Town’s performance in tonight’s 2-0 home reversal at the hands of Ipswich as the worst he has presided over as a Manager.
“That was absolutely abject. I’ve got to apologise, because that was horrendous; as bad as I’ve seen from any team of mine, and certainly since I walked through the door here. I thought the first-half at Blackpool was bad, but that was really poor. That was the first time I’ve seen us produce a performance that poor,” Mark told htafc.com.
“I’m talking about everybody tonight. I’m not saying they didn’t try – it’s not like they’ve thrown the towel in – but they couldn’t function. We work hard every day on making the players stronger and fitter so they can jump higher and run quicker, but we have to go and do it on the pitch.
“It looks like we don’t do any work during the week; I can see that. If I could have made 11 changes tonight, I would have done. Unfortunately we can’t do that.
“The squad and I deserve the criticism tonight and I can take it. We need people to stand up and be counted; we need leaders. That will be addressed in the coming months.
“This hurts. It’s something I’ve not gone through before, as a player or a Manager. The players are looked after here and I’ve just told them that they should cherish every day they have in football, because it might be taken away from them quicker than they know. They have to go out onto the pitch and prove that they want to be footballers for this Club. Make no bones about it, that is nowhere near good enough to be associated with Huddersfield Town.
“I could stand here and talk for hours and hours. I’ve just spoken at length with the players and they know exactly how I feel. Now they have to grow up and respond.
“We have one or two youngsters in the changing room and tonight they looked overawed by it. They have to learn the lessons, because a night like tonight cannot happen again in their careers. They have to go out and show some steel, with the determination to win that Ipswich showed tonight. That is exactly what it will take to progress.
“We have to show the steel and determination that our supporters crave. They don’t want to boo – they want to get behind the players – but we have to give them something to get behind. This Club is based on hard work and graft; that’s what the supporters understand. What they will not understand is seeing us turn up and think we can win a game of football without showing fight. We need to show the supporters we care.
“It’s alright knocking the ball around, as we did on Saturday, but our holy grail at the moment is a win and back to back good performances. Good performances will eventually get you the results. Tonight we were taking touches back towards our own goal as opposed to being on the front foot.
“We’ve seen plenty of occasions this season where the players have delivered and we have some good players here. Tonight it certainly didn’t click though, and we need to show much more than we have. We can’t dwell on tonight, but we have to learn from it because there is a big game coming up on Saturday against another team going for promotion.
“What I can say is this will be sorted out. We know where the frailties are and what we need to do. We’re focussed on getting ready for the game at Derby on Saturday. It will get better, there’s no doubt about that.
“Whatever we do on Saturday and whatever the personnel is, we have to make sure we never see the likes of that performance again.”
