Wanderers put in a spirited display against Leeds United but it was not quite enough as they slipped to a 3-2 defeat in the opening game of the season at Macron Stadium.
Gary Madine and Adam Le Fondre both opened their tally for the campaign, but despite late pressure, the Whites couldn’t salvage anything from the game.
Speaking to bwfc.co.uk following the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points...
On his side’s performance…
It was a full-blooded game, there was a lot of tired legs out there, but it was a real end to end affair.
In the first-half we have to be disappointed and we know we could have done better. The goals we conceded were disappointing, in particular the third one.
We reacted well in the second-half. I thought we showed a lot of character, there was a lot more quality on the ball and we mixed our game up better.
We got back to 3-2, but couldn’t find that moment of quality to get us a point.
On David Wheater and Josh Vela’s injuries…
David has had a back problem through the week and has missed training most of the week. He wanted to play, but was clearly struggling in the second-half and we had to bring him off. Josh is a worrying one, he’s a tough lad and when I saw him stay down it’s a concern and he will go to hospital tonight to have the injury assessed.
On Wanderers goal-scoring forwards…
I was really pleased for Gaz. Scoring with a header and then he nearly scored after his audacious attempt and Alfie took the penalty well. It was good for both of the strikers to get off the mark in the first game.
On today’s debutants…
I’m pleased with the players who made their debut today and the three who came off the bench. I thought Reece (Burke) was excellent, Will (Buckley) gave us a lift with his energy and quality and I thought Adam (Armstrong) was excellent when he came on. They all showed a great attitude to try and get us back into the game.
And finally, on Wednesday’s Caraboa Cup fixture vs Crewe Alexandra.
We go there Wednesday, we will be making changes for that game because we have another league game soon after against Millwall.
We want to go there and get through to the next round, but we will also be giving players much needed minutes.
Games come thick and fast, we have to be ready and hopefully we can put in a performance similar to the second-half today.