Post-game quotes from interim boss following home victory over Hull
Jimmy Phillips addressed the media following Saturday’s home victory over Hull City.
The Trotters beat play-off-bound Hull thanks to substitute Stephen Dobbie’s clever finish midway through the second period.
And speaking after the match interim boss Phillips covered the below points in his post-match press conference.
On his feelings after the match…
The unity between everyone in the stadium after the match was superb. There was a great atmosphere around the place and I think the fans really appreciated the performance and effort from the team today. We know it has been a wretched season, but I think we saw that if everyone is on the same page we have a special football club. Hopefully we’ve sent everyone home with a bit of hope for the future.
On the game overall…
It was difficult for us. Hull are obviously a side set for the play-offs and will be going for promotion. We made it as difficult as we possibly could for Hull and we did create a couple of chances. All along we’ve bene encouraging the players to get on the ball and show what they’re all about. There were some fantastic moves in the second half, one of which saw Neil Danns unlucky not to score. Hull were throwing everything at us late on, but we held on.
On Josh Vela’s late omission…
He was injured in the warm up, which was unfortunately. It’s almost symptomatic of our season, but we did have a ready-made replacement in Lawrie Wilson.
In his period in charge of the team…
It has been an interesting period. With the squad of players that we have I think we all know we have more quality than we have shown. That squad of players has changed a fair bit over the last few months and we’ve ended up playing a formation that doesn’t really contain much width. I wouldn’t say it has been enjoyable because nobody likes getting beat, but we’ve given it our best shot.
On hopes for the future…
Some of the younger players we’ve been able to give opportunities to and some of those have done really well. Oscar Threlkeld has looked sharp since returning from Plymouth and Tyler Garratt had a really good full debut today. Then there’s Rob Holding and Niall Maher. There are certainly a crop of younger players here who can form the core of the team next season.