POST MATCH MORECAMBE Manager's thoughts on point at the Globe Arena Rovers boss John Ward declared himself pleased with the point his side earned against Morecambe this afternoon. A second half goal by Eliot Richards cancelled out Jack Redshaw’s opener, scored in the second minute of the game. However Ward’s side battled hard to get back on level terms and were rewarded when Richards scored his fifth goal of the season. Both sides had chances to wrap up all three points, but a draw was probably a fair result between two of the division’s in form teams. “It is an excellent point, when you bear in mind that we came here having lost our game against Rotherham on Tuesday, and then we conceded after two minutes today. “In the light of that you might have thought heads might have dropped, but they didn’t. “We had 88 minutes to get back in the game today, whereas we conceded twice in the space of three minutes last Tuesday and made life extremely difficult for ourselves. “I think we learned from that, and today we stayed with the game for quite a long time to give ourselves a chance of taking something home. “In terms of this team growing in its collective group, it’s getting better and the players are learning a lot more about each other and about the game. That has to be a good point for us against a Morecambe side that had lost only one of their last six games coming into this one.” Rovers were rocked by the early goal scored by the home side. “When we look at it we will think we might have prevented it but it was a good strike into the corner of the net after we had given away possession. However when things like that happen you look for a reaction from your players. “We reacted positively and at half time I told the players to continue to play in the same manner they had before the break, but to do it with a little bit more confidence. “I wanted us to attack their back four a little bit more and to give them a few problems and we did that. “The game could have gone either way. We had two breakaways in the second half when we had players through in one on one situations but were unable to finish them off, while they hit the woodwork.” The manager had to change tactics due to the injury to Ryan Brunt and elected to play Eliot Richards and Tom Hitchcock up front. “Naturally I knew about Tom and Eliot, because they did well at Fleetwood and they did well again this afternoon and we always fancied we could get a goalscoring chance. “It was a good goal, and great that it was Eliot who scored it. It was a classic header across the defender and enables those young lads to claim a little bit of glory, which was nice. “Both had one on one situations and they are hard when you are racing through on goal, but the nice thing for me is that they got into those situations. Both of them have a little bit of pace and were able to create the chances themselves. “They are good young people who have a mental strength about them.”
Ward's superb man-management and mastership of psychology. At the end of that quote above he could have said that if either of those one-on-one chances had gone in we could have pinched the game. But no, he boosts the 'youngsters' by saying they did well to create the chances. Ace man.
