Simon pleased with narrow victory
Simon Grayson praised his players’ endeavour as they recorded a narrow victory over Bristol City.
“You have to be able to win football matches in a number of different manners – and today was one of those days,” said Simon.
“We didn’t play the fluid football that we are capable of doing, but we got the goal and grinded it out. I thought we were better in the second half and passed it with more of a purpose; if we had been slightly more ruthlessly we could have scored a couple more. In the end we were indebted to Alex (Smithies) for making a couple of good saves.
“They were throwing bodies forward in the closing stages and Alex showed how good a goalkeeper he is by keeping his concentration levels high and making the save from Stephen McManus.
“We knew it was going to be a tough afternoon and we knew that we had to give the crowd something to shout about. It is a two way thing and we have to give them something to get excited about. We know that we can pass the ball better and our goal was our best passing move of the game. It was nice to see Sean Scannell getting into the box and he finished well.”
As Simon said Sean Scannell proved the difference between the sides and he was pleased with the performance of the winger.
“He was lively today,” Simon told htafc.com. “I was impressed with the way that he played on Monday night in the Under-21 game and we have been trying to get him a little bit fitter over the last couple of weeks. The lad has got a lot of ability and he could have have been a little bit more ruthless, but that is Scanz for you. He can do things that other players can’t do and with that he will, on occasion, make a bad decision.”
Town was missing its first choice strike force in Jermaine Beckford and James Vaughan and Simon explained their absence.
“Jermaine picked up a hamstring strain in training and James Vaughan suffered a reoccurrence of his injury on Friday while he was doing his fitness test. We played a formation today which was to allow Scannell, Adam Clayton and Adam Hammill the opportunity to get forward. You can’t fault the endeavour of the players, they worked their socks off.”
