STEP IT UP!
COWLEY CHALLENGES PLAYERS TO PROVE THEY ARE BETTER THAN IN WIGAN DEFEAT
both Fraizer Campbell and Steve Mounie had injuries.
Cowley has reviewed the action and already started piecing together a game plan for the City ground, in what is the last ‘free’ week of the season without a midweek game.
“We have felt the last five or six weeks have been useful ones for us, but we have a full week to prepare for the Nottingham Forest game – and they will be long days,” said the boss.
“It’s a matter of dusting ourselves down, sucking up the disappointment and fighting hard on the training pitch every day.
“I know we can be better, I want better for the players and I want better for the club.
“We under-performed after such a long preparation and such a good preparation, and that’s the real disappointment.”
So what’s been the mantra since the Wigan game finished, looking ahead to the meeting with Sabri Lamouchi’s fifth-placed side?
“I don’t think this is a time for excuses and I don’t like to make them, they are for weak people,” explained Cowley.
“No-one wants to hear them on the back of defeats, either. The team we had was the team we thought was the best available to win the game.
“Unfortunately, Alex Pritchard picked up a kick on his ankle last Tuesday so he wasn’t available from the beginning, but we felt from the players we had available that was the best way to go into the game.
“Being honest, we played really well at Middlesbrough the previous Saturday – we were excellent.
“We played three lots of 45 minutes, won the game 5-1, looked a good team and trained really well all week – we trained at the stadium last Wednesday and did some 11 vs 11, did six blocks of six minutes and looked really good.
“So it was frustrating. It becomes difficult when you have the preparation we had and then you go and perform the way we did.
“It’s tough to take. It’s never nice when we let each other down, but we have to accept responsibility for that, all take our own bit of responsibility and learn from it so that we can come back stronger.”