Knill We Switched Off

Manager Alan Knill has bemoaned the fact that Torquay switched off in the final minutes of our FA Cup first round game against Rochdale last weekend.

Speaking to the Official Sitefollowing the loss courtesy of two goals in the final five minute of the 90, Knill didn’t try and pretend it was our best performance of the season or that we should’ve won, but he thought we had done enough to take it to a replay and give ourselves a second bite of the cherry, but for whatever reason, we went to sleep and were punished.

‘It was a tough game against a very good side and it looked like ending nil nil, but we just switched off and they got behind us to score. We didn’t play well but, if you don’t play well, then don’t lose.’

Knill continues to say that as it reached 80 minutes he really thought it was going to finish as a draw because although Rochdale had more chances on the day, there really wasn’t much in the game and if we could’ve mustered even 5% more it could’ve been enough to see us a bit more comfortable – certainly have been enough not to have lost it in the final minutes at any rate.

Disappointingly it also took us 15 or so minutes to get to grips with their shape and movement so we did ride our luck somewhat, but after that we were at least competitive even though we failed to really test their keeper because of the shape and we struggled to create chances.

One thing that Knill points out is that when we have Paul McCallum in the team we really have to pay attention when it comes to resorting just to long ball as he felt we did that too much and he’d have rather seen us put our foot on the ball a bit more and play it around.

As for moving forward, the gaffer ends the interview by saying there is absolutely no reason why Torquay won’t bounce back from this defeat, but the players are very disappointing in how the game was lost, especially being so close to a replay, but the focus will now be on Chesterfield and we’ll be looking for a positive result again and giving the fans something to cheer about.