Jon Meeney said his players gave him everything despite defeat against Brackley Town, with the Sutton boss overseeing a narrow loss in his first game in interim charge of the club.
A battling display went unrewarded in Northamptonshire as a late Connor Hall strike condemned the U’s to a disappointing defeat, but Meeney largely spoke positively about the performance.
“Disappointed to lose the game late on” he said.
“Minimum, we wanted to come away with a point today. I really felt as the game went on, we would work ourselves into the position to maybe us to go and win it 1-0.”
“I think you saw in those latter stages, just before they scored, we had a good bit of play down the right-hand side with the opposite wide player coming in and I thought that was going to go in the top stanch, and it didn’t, and then obviously we give away a poor foul from a situation we shouldn’t be in, and obviously that then leads to conceding the goal in the 84th minute.”
“That does deflate you because you get so close to getting a clean sheet, stopping the losing run, and getting a point on the road, which you always aim to do, get your points on the road regarding the draws.
But I’ve got to look at the group and look at the performance and go, do you know what they gave me, they gave themselves, the fans, the club, everything out there and squeezed as much out of the lemon as we could.”
In what has proved to be a difficult week at the VBS Community Stadium, Meeney highlighted the reaction he saw at St. James Park after the departure of Steve Morison on Wednesday.
“There has to a reaction, but they showed me a little bit more today” he added.
“I’m celebrating blocks, tackles, headers, interceptions, I thought we defended our box really well. There’s a few details I need to look at. Going the other way, I want more, but that’s a confidence thing, that’s a belief thing.”
“I want more from the lads in how they have longer spells on the ball in the opposition half. To be more joined up and connected. 1v1s, 2v1s, forward runs, crosses in the box, shots, third man runs, etc.”
“I want to suffocate the opposition in the opposition half. That’s not playing total football, it’s being more penetrative, but I know that comes from confidence. That’s the biggest vitamin in football.”
A notable aspect of Sutton’s defeat to Brackley was how they performed from a defensive standpoint, with the U’s issues largely coming down to the goals conceded so far this season. Although they were unable to keep a clean sheet, Sutton managed to keep it down to one, and importantly kept their opponents at bay for the first 85 minutes of the game.
“People that know me know that I love the ball. That’s why I was brought into the club, to try and make us be more proactive, more dynamic, progressive, and if you look at my track record, where I’ve been on my journey, everyone knows and associates me with the ball.”
“But also, I love the other side of the game, because that earns the right to play the beautiful game. First and foremost, I pride myself in how I organise the team. I buzz off clean sheets, buzz off scoring goals, but that gives you a foundation.”
“Where we are at the moment, we need clean sheets. We need to stop conceding goals. The best way to do that is to attack in our duels, to attack with the ball to pin the opposition back, to attack our man and be aggressive.”
“First contact, second contact, stopping crosses, taking more pride in defending set pieces, and ultimately, if you score goals in a game, it changes not just the scoreline, it changes the whole atmosphere inside the pitch, outside the pitch. And that’s what we’ve got to keep focusing on when we work on these moments.”
The games continue to come thick and fast with Sutton set to visit Woking in just three days’ time. Meeney touched on the importance of recovering, before moving on from this defeat as he looks to guide the U’s to their second win of the season at the Laithwaite Community Stadium.
“I look forward to seeing my family. The boys, I just told them, they’ve given me everything. It’s been a bit of a slog, go and be with your families, first and foremost. That’s tomorrow and recover.”
“As soon as they walk through that door on Monday, we have to bin this game. We can’t look back, we have to look forward and put our foot on the accelerator, full focus on how we can be competitive against Woking to really turn the situation around.”
