Mark offers mixed reaction to friendly defeat
Mark Robins focused on the positives from the friendly defeat at Oldham, but admitted that his players need to be more focused come 3pm, 3 August.
“There were some very good, good, very bad and bad things about the game,” he said.
“Hopefully we have got those indifferent performances out of systems now ahead of Forest. On the positive side, Martin Paterson has got three goals in three games and we passed the ball well. It is good to have the game out of the way now so that we can focus on next week.
“Friendly games are important and I am disappointed that we have conceded three goals; hopefully it will focus everybody. We can’t play when we feel like it; we have to be at it every game. We need to be better defensively.
“I thought we attacked well and that Cristian (Lopez) did well. He lasted the 80 minutes he had on the pitch and scored a good goal. I was impressed. Hopefully we can keep him for a little bit longer before we have to make a decision. We are still looking for that extra little bit of zip going forward, but I watched Nottingham Forest last night and they had the same problem.
“James Vaughan took a knock to his head and he lost consciousness for a little while. He came around and was OK, so hopefully we will get the benefit of him having had a little rest today. It was heart in your mouth time for everyone, but thankfully he is fine. I don’t expect to him miss next weekend’s game.”
