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Lambert: Didn't Deserve to Win, Didn't Deserve to Lose
Saturday, 14th Sep 2019 18:14

Town boss Paul Lambert felt the Blues didn’t deserve to beat Doncaster but equally felt his side didn’t deserve to be beaten following this afternoon’s 0-0 draw at Portman Road with his team not playing at their usual intensity in the first half in particular.

“A tough game, I don’t think we deserved to win the game, I don’t think we deserved to lose it,” he said. “In the first half Doncaster were better, in the second we were slightly better.

“Just because we’ve set a high standard, we’re going to have to work on that when teams raise their game when they come here because of the stadium and the atmosphere.

“So, a point’s OK, I’m pretty pleased, I’m not overly pleased, I’m pretty pleased. If you can’t win a game, make sure you don’t lose it.

“I know from my own experience of winning titles, I certainly didn’t win every game in my life.”

Lambert was pleased with the clean sheet, Town’s third in the last three League One games.

“We had some good moments, some really good saves by Tomas but I don’t think we did enough in the game,” he continued.

“Credit to Doncaster, they’re a good side but when you come here and there’s nearly 20,000, teams will raise their games.

“As I say to you every time, we have some young players there who are doing really well, guys coming back from injuries.

“A lot of teams would rather sit where we are in the table, where we are with a game in hand. I’m pleased.”

The Blues boss was also happy for Town’s league unbeaten run to have been extended to eight, seven this season plus the Leeds match on the final day of 2018/19.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he added. “As I’ve said before, you’re never going to win every game. We’re in a good moment.”


Another positive was Will Keane’s second debut for the club as a late sub: “I think Will has not played many games but 15, 20 minutes I think is good [at this point], so I’m happy he’s back and keeping him fit is huge for us. Jon Nolan is also coming back to it.

“Kane Vincent-Young was terrific again, Tomas Holy, some great saves, so a lot of good things.”

Strikers James Norwood and Kayden Jackson had frustrating afternoons having scored nine goals between them in the previous four league games.

“We never played our normal way in the first half, the intensity,” Lambert continued. “Then again Norwood went and had two chances and the goalkeeper’s made a good stop.

“But they’re a handful, the two are an absolutely handful and they’ll score a load of goals for us this season, I’ve got no worry about that at all.

“Sometimes you get games like that. As I said before, if you can't win it, make sure you don’t lose it.”"

Asked whether Doncaster are the toughest side his team has faced so far this season, he said: “No, everyone is, every team’s hard. There’s not one team that’s harder than each other. You have to respect every team.

“You earn the right, I’ve never been involved in a football game where it’s easy so unless somebody hits me with a bolt of lightning and says ‘You’ve got an easy game’ then every game to me will be hard.”

Does he see the South Yorkshiremen - eighth but having played a game or two games fewer than everyone else - as potential contenders come the end of the season.

“I don’t know, every team is hard,” he reflected. “It’s really difficult to call that because we’ve not even played 10 games yet, there’s miles to go, an absolute country mile.

“And the pitches will get bad and the weather will get bad, there are so many factors to it. What I’m pleased about is we’re unbeaten and we’re a big target because of the size of the club. It’s great, you bring it on and we look forward to every team that tries to take us.”

Regarding Emyr Huws, who was absent from the matchday 18, he added: “Emyr’s doing great. He missed a few days through not being well. That was the only reason.

“As I’ve said before, with that lad, what you don’t want to do to him is allow him to break down again and we lose him.

“I think mentally it’ll be really tough for him if he breaks down again, and when you don’t train for a few days and he’s not been that well, I didn’t want to out him at risk where he might break down. Tuesday’s a different game, I’ll look at Tuesday and I’ll see where we are from there.”

He also explained Danny Rowe’s absence from the squad: “He’s not well, he’s got a really bad ear infection Danny at the minute.

"He wasn’t well on Thursday, he felt a little bit better yesterday but not too good again today. And he was a loss because he’s been playing fantastic for us.”

Doncaster boss Darren Moore believed his team ought to have claimed all three points.

“I think the way the game went today, the balance of it, I thought we felt we should have come here and won the game," he said.

“We had a game plan to come here and win the game and I think on the full 90 minutes of the game, I thought Doncaster Rovers were worthy of a win today.

“But, as they say, if you don’t win the game, make sure you don’t lose it and we’ve not lost the game.

“But credit to the players, I thought they performed well today. If I had one slight criticism of us today, just in the final third we just didn’t get that killer touch and the goal.”

He added: “I felt we created some good chances, we’ve come down here and I thought we dominated the game in terms of the possession of the ball.

“I thought we used it well, I thought the pitch was excellent today, it’s a wonderful surface, it’s a perfect surface for us today to come and play our football against good opposition, but I just thought the players did well and took the game away from them and played our stuff.

“I think, looking at it today, I think we could have won the three points, but we didn’t get the three points but we didn’t lose the game.”

Told Lambert had said he was "pretty pleased" with the point, Moore said: “I thank Paul for his kind words, he’s got a very dominant team here.

"He’s got a really good momentum at the football club, just short of 19,000 here today, so in terms of the crowd at this level, it was a wonderful atmosphere here today and his team will be in the ascendency at the right end of the table, I'm absolutely sure of that.

“But we keep going, we take the positives out of today’s game, we analyse it and try and look at the points that will hopefully make us look better.”


Photo: TWTD



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ian_marshall added 18:19 - Sep 14
Frustrating game today. Take the point and on to mkd away!
5

OwainG1992 added 18:26 - Sep 14
Played 7. Won 4 drawn 3.
Think we all would have taken that!
Onto Tuesday!!
6

big_gaz67 added 18:47 - Sep 14
Darren Moore is a class act. It was him, rather than the ref, who got his players to stop when Cole Skuse got a knock on his head. The way he was treated by West Brom was embarrassing.
22

Suffolkboy added 19:18 - Sep 14
How interesting to have an opposition Manager praising the playing surface : almost seems like the old days under Ferguson – so very well done to everyone concerned in producing this result !
COYB
9

CraigEdwards added 19:35 - Sep 14
Four wins and three draws wow and there were still so called fans booed at the end of the game. People have to be patient and encourage the team in the SAR lower. Also getting on the back of kenlock through the game for missed passing isn't going to help him. His tackle at the end of the game saved us a point. You have to give Doncaster some credit as they came and played some good football and with a decent striker would have got more than a point.
12

pennblue added 20:40 - Sep 14
Good point today, Doncaster deserved 3 imo. Main difference is they were first to the ball and closing us down and were on it for at least
80 mins of the game. We were off the pace and passing was poor too.

We didn't lose and that is a good sign. We no longer
Look like capitulating like we did last season.
3

itfchorry added 23:40 - Sep 14
Second Darren Moore being a Class Act
3

AbujaBlue added 23:47 - Sep 14
Now that is how to behave post-match. Take note, Shrewsbury managers (past and present).
7

Linkboy13 added 08:52 - Sep 15
Don't agree with Lambert thought we were lucky today .we didn't work hard enough without the ball Doncaster always seem to have more time,sooner or later we will get found out. We've got the strongest squad in the league but haven't quite clicked yet.
1

TheHound added 11:20 - Sep 16
When will Freddie Sears come back? We need him!
0


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