By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Skuse: Second Half Display Hard to Take Monday, 15th Aug 2016 06:00
Town midfielder Cole Skuse admitted the second half performance during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Brentford was hard to take and says the squad will be hurting. Bees home debutant John Egan netted in the 48th and 56th minutes to seal the win with the Blues subsequently unable to get themselves back into the match.
“It’s hard, especially being an older head in the dressing room, you take a bit more responsibility,” Skuse said.
“It’s tough to swallow, it’s never easy. When you get on your phone and your friends and your partner are ringing you asking how you got on and you’ve got to tell them that we were poor.
“It’s tough and it’ll be hard on Sunday to watch the game back to break it down and find out why we didn’t give ourselves a chance to get back in the game. A tough one to swallow.”
Skuse says he and his team-mates take pride in their performances and don’t take displays such as Saturday’s lightly.
“We’ll be hurting, it’s never from want of trying,” the Bristolian added. “You’re always going to have days where teams will have the edge, it’s just so hard to go from the first-half display where we were coming in at half-time thinking it was 0-0 but we’ve done well, we’ve played some good stuff, to come out in the second half and fold like that. It’s tough.”
Like boss Mick McCarthy, Skuse was pleased with the way the team played before half-time: “It was that horrible old cliche of very much a game of two halves. We came off at the break at 0-0, they might say they had some chances, but we were slightly disappointed that it was 0-0, we played some really good stuff.
“We played in the right areas, when the ball broke we got it down and played some decent stuff, created some chances and we had a really good first half. In the second half we just folded.”
The 30-year-old admitted that the players were disappointed by the manner of Egan’s goals: “We were, they were goals we can avoid. Goals we pride ourselves on avoiding really.
“Especially after the first goal went in, we needed to show a bit more drive to get back into the game.
“Even at 2-0 you’ve got to fancy yourself to get back in the game. But in the second half we just didn’t have that drive.”
Why does he believe that was the case? “It’s always hard straight after a game to put your finger on why, hence we’ll be in on Sunday morning going through the video, we’ll be breaking it down.
“It can be the finest things, the smallest of percentages that don’t give you that chance to get back in the game.”
In addition to picking out mistakes, the former Bristol City man says positives from the game will also be highlighted.
“We’ll always break down the game and find out the points we can improve and we’ll try and end with stuff that we’ve done very well because you can’t just neglect the things you've done well and over-emphasise the things you’ve done wrong, you’ve still got to find the balance.
“I thought we played some good stuff in the first half, stuff we’ve been working on, so we’ll be trying to put it right on Tuesday [at Wolves].”
Skuse is confident the squad is capable of competing during the season ahead: “It’s hardly any different to the squad we’ve had in the season where we finished sixth and seventh last season.
“We’ve added a couple. We’re very, very disappointed with the second half today because we know the squad we’ve got and that that shouldn’t be happening, the display in the second half shouldn’t be happening because we know we’ve got a good enough squad to challenge at the top.”
After last week’s lacklustre first half against Barnsley, Grant Ward turned the game around with his remarkable debut hat-trick, but Skuse says Town can’t expect miracles from the 21-year-old too often.
“We’re not expecting him to do that every week,” he continued. “He’s a fantastic player, he and Conor Grant are both younger lads, they’ve got bags and bags of ability and they’ve been at top clubs, Tottenham and Everton, for a reason. We shouldn’t expect him to dig us out every week, it’s not going to be the case.
“It’s one of those days, it’s early on in the season, there are a lot of games ago, but the second half wasn’t good enough from us.”
Regarding Conor Grant, also 21, who is on a season-long loan from the Toffees, Skuse added: “He’s got bags of ability, he’s got a great left foot, he was obviously on loan at Doncaster last year and they were over the moon with him.
“We’ve done very well to bring him in, he’s a great boy and, like I say, he’s got bags of ability. They’ll both be great signings for us.”
Does he expect further signings before the window shuts at the end of the month? “That’s nothing we talk about really. The window’s still open, it’s something you’d have to ask the manager or the coaching staff about.”
Reflecting on this year’s Championship as a whole, Skuse added: “I know we probably say the same every year, the toughest league we’ve been in, but this probably is.
“I’ve been in the Championship a little while and if you look at the way football as a whole has evolved in terms of money, it’s filtering down from the Premier League.
“Big clubs like Newcastle, Villa, [people paying fees of £12 million at Championship level] would have been unheard of a few years ago and it’s making the league even harder.
“But there’s no reason why we can’t challenge like we have for the last few years.”
Photo: TWTD
Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
2nd half ??? 1st half was below average as was last weeks against Barnsley and the whole game against Stevenage and the second half of last season. On a very fast downward slope with no chance of stopping before we arrive in league 1 with this tax dodging owner, pointless MD, dinosaur manager and substandard players. Our great club is in big trouble. 😢😢😢
It's simple really, other teams know to attack Chambers & Knudsen, sooner or later they'll get a break from one of the making a mistake. Then they push on in midfield, knowing that we lack any real creativity, they can stifle the midfield making it hard for us to feed anything forward to our strikers, this is clearly happening, you only have to look at our strikers' lack of goals.
We're powder-puff, as soon as an opposition team roll their sleeves up to take the game up a gear, we are left floundering.
A disgrace they were useless as they have been since this awful manager took over yes he kept us up yes we got into the playoffs but just ask why because the clubs around us threw it away . Last season one of the worst I have seen awful games week after week. All the pro McCarthy people shoul look at themselves and ask what they want from a football surely it's hope and a longing for success otherwise it's pointless going and watching. McCarthy plays too many players out of position and too many favourites. We have to make changes from top to bottom before we become a dig 2 side as the longer we leave it the more other clubs improve. We will become and are becoming another Portsmouth they had rich owner who miss managed and a very poor choice of manager just like it Ipswich McCarthy OUT
It's all just talk. How many times have the players gone in the next day to pick the bones out of an awful performance only to repeat the same mistakes in the next game. We need a new manager, with fresh ideas, because the same ideas and methods from last year will only get the same results.
On the plus side Conor Grant looks like a very decent addition to the squad.
We are more in need of "Dynamo" the magician to manage us then he could make sure the assembled crud within McCarthy's squad disappear.
For myself, Skuse is and never will be a player who can turn us into a force and he is just like Chambers. Some who just makes up the numbers and that is all.
Shocking but with Dino in charge this is as good as it gets.
How many times have I heard him same 'to give goals away like that is not like us' well it is us Dino, it sums us up. Chambers must be dropped, Berra and Bru too. Tommy was our top defender last year but we ALL knew he would be the fall guy. Get him back in for tomorrow night, if nothing else he will get goals from the excellent dead balls that Grant puts in the box. And why was he dragged off on Saturday??
Lets get the dead wood out and blood the youngsters this season ready for next year. It cannot be any worse.
The Dino lovers will say its only two games but the writing was on the wall at Easter. This old relic will only take us one way with all his mates in the team.
Soooo Cole thinks playing poor football "is tough to swallow"..... and subsequently telling your concerned calling friends and partner "we were/are piZzzz poor".
Hmmmm I get all that Cole, I really do.... but ehhhh seriously Cole you are familiar with the old medical proverb: "TRUTH IS THE HARDEST PILL TO SWALLOW" aren't you Cole? :-)
And on that very subject, i.e. The Truth, over to may main man Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, US Marine Corps:
Skuse is our strongest player in terms of holding midfield - that is what he is in the team for. The problem is the team as whole aren't good enough. They weren't last year & this year will be even harder.
Not sure why we have to be MM lovers or haters? His four years in numbers look good; that said numbers don't reflect the last 12-18 months of tedium.
Big week ahead so lets get behind the boys. New arrivals & playing some young players might help but a win at last against the budgies and everything might look different.
I know its only early days but the signs are not good. I cant see us getting anything from the Wolves game and on this kind of poor form its likely that Naarich will give us a good hiding next weekend. I always want to be positive about Town's chances but Connor Grant and Grant Ward aside I am struggling to see any positives. Bart is a good GK but only he can do so much when we defend like we did Saturday. MM bashing aside, surely the Captain needs to take some blame for our severe lack of organisation at set pieces? Hopefully some miracle will take place and Wolves have an off night and we get much needed 3 points before our feathered friends come a gloating looking to add more misery ! :-(
As long as we keep playing the way we are with some players not warrenting a starting place and MM playing the same style and making the same old excuses as last season nothing will change,,he will not change he is to stubborn So best he packs his bags and let someone capable of doing the job he obviously can't.
The only way MM will save his job is if he gets his shopping trolley out and goes off to the market for some quality players that wears clearly lacking.
Anybody remember the last time they saw Skuse play well? I know exactly what his role in the side is so before someone points that out to me, but he has steadily declines over the past 2 seasons and now doesn't even seem capable of screening our defence in the same way he did in the 14/15 season. As Keaneish pointed out, how on earth is he still an automatic starter off the back of so many mediocre performances? Admittedly having the useless Bru alongside you is always going to hamper your own game in the center of the park but it must be time to try something different in there?
Currie10 "No need to panic", sorry but their's every reason to panic already as the performances are as bad as ever. The only plus side are the Grants but hey one of those was dragged off I would venture to say we are relegation material and unless some dramatic changes are made both on and off the field sooner rather than later, it's going to be a long and painful season ahead, I fear the worst for the two games this week unless some miracle happens!
I think I'm more upset about this result than any other in the last 15 years at this level. There was nothing to that Brentford side, NOTHING! Unless they have their lucky season, they wont be beating too many sides 2-0 and yet our tactic was to keep it tight against them for 60 mins while we try to work out their formation. You could actually see the moment mid way through the first half where they worked us out. They realised that we have no right back, they realised we have an inexperienced centre back partnership and they realised our two central midfielders have been order to sit back infront of the back four and not go forward. This is made only worse by the fact our great plan B for chasing a game and getting back into it was to bring on Jonathan Douglas?!?! If these are the tactics and players that we are hoping will get something v Wolves & Norwich then good luck.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
