Duff delighted with attitude in Trophy trouncing
MANAGER Michael Duff praised the attitude of his players after Tuesday night’s 6-2 hammering of Arsenal’s Under-21s in the Checkatrade Trophy.
Duff started with only four of the side which lost 2-0 at home to Stevenage in a revamped 3-5-2 formation and goals from Chris Clements, Will Boyle, Jacob Maddox (2), Kelsey Mooney and Ryan Broom gave Duff his first win since taking over as manager.
Players who have been on the fringe recently, Ben Tozer, Mooney, Conor Thomas, Jordon Forster, Liam Mcalinden and Tom Field, had a run-out, while Sean Long played 45 minutes after his long injury lay-off.
Duff said: “I thought the application and the attitude was excellent from one to 11.
“I don’t think anybody thought ‘oh why am I playing in this game?’ and they didn’t devalue the competition at all.
“I didn’t devalue it and it was an opportunity for people to impress and certain people did.
“That was the most pleasing aspect and it’s only this group of people that can get us out of it and the people in the dressing room.
“Yes, we have lads out on loan, but at the minute, probably until January, those members of staff and those players need to recognise where we are, which they do and they need to deliver better performances, which will in turn deliver better results.”
Duff refused to be drawn on whether he will persevere with the 3-5-2 system against Mansfield on Saturday.
“I don’t know and I am not going to tell you,” he said.
“We need to wait and see and obviously Mansfield play a certain way and we’ll rock up on Thursday and count the bodies and see who is available.
“I am pleased we did it, rather than thinking ‘what if’ and the players have shown they can deliver in that shape.
“We had to look at different things because what we were doing clearly wasn’t working.”
Two-goal Maddox was the main beneficiary of the formation change as he starred in a central role, and Duff said: “We moved him into the middle of the pitch on Saturday and again having him in the middle, but with a tweak as well.
“It’s not only about Jacob, it’s finding the right position for lots of different people.
“It’s something we have thought about and it’s something we thought would be a good opportunity to have a
look at and Jacob stepped up, no doubt. He looked a very good player today.
“I’d like to have kept him on to be honest, but there has been a little bit of a sickness bug going around and he was feeling a little bit tired so we took him off for his own benefit.”
Long played 45 minutes before being replaced by Broom and Duff said: “Longy did well.
“Maybe he aggravated it, but we have to wait and see.
“He was only down to play 45 minutes, but he felt a little twinge in the last few minutes of the first half.
“I don’t know the severity of that yet and hopefully it’s just a little bit of fatigue.”
Another player to make a good impression was former Coventry and Swindon man Thomas, who has barely played under Duff.
But the manager stressed that the midfielder is very much in his thoughts despite coming off in the second half.
Duff said: “He has been feeling a bit ill and he tweaked his medial in the warm-up, but he was adamant he wanted to play, which was pleasing for me.
“IHE has missed a day’s training, he has lost 4kg in weight when he rocked up on Monday after missing the game on Saturday.
“I was asked last week whether Kelsey Mooney and Conor were in plans and I was true to my word.
“I normally say it like it is and I said they are both in my plans and they both started because they are. I’d be mad to discard people at this point.
“The way he has trained has been excellent, particularly in the last two or three weeks.
“His application has been good and this doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s what you want to see from players, not sulking and blaming everyone else, just working harder and he’s worked his way back in.”