Chris Agutter reinforced the need to shift the mentality following Sutton’s dramatic defeat at Yeovil Town, and is relishing the quick turnaround as his side prepare for a big away test against FC Halifax Town.
The U’s will be looking to bounce back from the frustrating and disappointing final stages in Somerset as they bid to move further away from the relegation zone.
“Looking forward to getting back on the pitch, or seeing the team back out on the pitch in a competitive game.” he said.
“We trained this morning, trained very well, and had a thorough debrief after Wednesday night. Now we look ahead to a tough test away at Halifax.”
“We went into a protection, self-preservation, negative mindset and we came unstuck. We went back to a mentality that I felt like I walked into, which can obviously happen when you’re on a poor run of form. But for us, we’ve got no excuses. We’ve been on a decent run and we’re still on a decent run. We’re sixth in the form guide in the league.”
“We’re in a good place. We played incredibly well on the Tuesday and the Saturday prior to the Yeovil Town game and there’s no excuse for us to have gone in the direction that we did in the final 20 minutes. Yeovil were there to get beat.”
“I didn’t think there was that much of a counterpunch in them, without being disrespectful. We gave up the three points as opposed to Yeovil taking them. If we’d carried on in the same vein or level of performance that got us into a winning position, we would have won that quite convincingly. But we didn’t, and we need to learn from it, which we will.”
The Head Coach reiterated that the decisive factor was not tactical but psychological, pointing to the shift in mindset that ultimately cost his side control of the game and, with it, the points.
Despite the setback, he stressed that the broader context remains positive, highlighting the team’s strong recent run and their position in the league’s form guide as evidence that the foundations are solid.
“We’ve got another reference point for future games where if there’s any hint that we’re taking a backward step, trying to protect and be a bit negative, we know what can happen. We’ll be stronger off the back of the experience for sure.”
“It was a shift away from a mentality which has served us well. Emotions are a funny thing and they can play a real part in games. They can influence the direction of a game and I think that’s exactly what we saw on Wednesday night.
“But for us, what we saw in the last 20 minutes, fortunately we’ve broken the back of that and we don’t see that too often, which makes it even more frustrating when it does rear its ugly head.
“There’ll be plenty of reminders around what makes us a good side and what has got us to a place where we are sixth in the form guide. We just keep doubling down on that and keep banging the drum.”
He then went on to insist that the best response to Wednesday night’s frustration is an immediate return to competitive action and another opportunity to put things right on the pitch, with a hectic period that sees three games played in six games.
“You do a lot of your work with the group more in terms of team meetings and unit meetings off the pitch as opposed to on it.”
“The team meeting today was longer than the training session. It’s about being really specific and going after key bits and pieces as opposed to a thousand and one ideas.
“The previous game against Halifax, we were very good. There’s some really good stuff to refer back to and plenty in that game which I think will work. So it’s short, sharp bullet-point information and most of your work off the pitch.”
Agutter has previously described the 2-0 win over the Shaymen back in November as arguably his side’s best display since he took over the previous month, and reflecting on that day, he confirmed that it is a part of his messaging heading into the reverse fixture tomorrow afternoon.
“We were very good that day and well worth the 2–0 win. We’ve improved since then, so the expectation for us is to produce an even better level of performance.”
“That should put us in a great position to be incredibly competitive and get three points against a very good side.”
