Wilder: We must put chances away

CHRIS Wilder demanded his side improve in front of goal as a host of missed chances from Middlesbrough made their win over York City appear a lot tighter than it was.

Boro had plenty of opportunities, particularly in a dominant first half. Nevertheless, as the Boro boss pointed out afterwards, the fact his side didn’t kill the game off was ultimately what encouraged the Minstermen to fightback in the second half and make life a little less comfortable for Boro’s second half side.

Wilder said: “We have to be mindful of the level we’re playing against – a team that’s just been promoted into the National League.

“It’s still early of course too. But it looks a little tighter than what it should do because we weren’t clinical enough.

“Listen I’ll never be one of those managers that expects every chance to go in, and I’m respectful of the opposition, but I’ve got to say, it should have been incredibly more comfortable than it was in terms of the scoreline.

“The overall play was good. There are a couple of things we need to tighten up on, but the reality is if you don’t put a team to bed… We should be 3-0 up after five minutes and 5-0 up at half-time.

“And what it does is it absolutely punctures the opposition, it punctures their enthusiasm and it punctures their attitude and the game becomes easier.

“Fair play to them, they were game and had some good players, and they got themselves back into it and it became a bit of a test. But it should never really have come to that. In the final third we have to be so much more clinical. Hopefully that will come.”

With so many senior players guilty of missing good opportunities,

Wilder continued: “They should be scoring. Josh should score, Kav should score.

“This is National League level and so if they want to play in our first team they’ve got to score in these games. They’ve done well, Kav has done well to get two, but the manager I am, he’s got to get a hat-trick.

“Duncan’s got to score. McGree’s got to score, Tavernier has got to score. Like I say, I’m not expecting every chance, but we created enough and they’ve got to score.

“That’s their job. Other bits like link-up play and stretching from the front are positive and things we’ve got to do to create the chances, but we’ve got to stick the ball in the back of the net.

“I’m maybe a little bit more critical than you guys, but that’s where my head’s at, the lads have got to score. It is a bit of an individual sport as well.

“Was that the team that will start the season? No. Are we going to bring some more players in? 100% and we’re working extremely hard to do that, but this their opportunity to impress.”

Offering a reprieve to his forwards, he added: “I’m not really into excuses, but what I will say is that we haven’t really done any finishing sessions yet this summer.

“There is a lot of work at this part of pre-season, distance working etc. We’ll sharpen ourselves up as the summer goes on and do more technical drills and finishing drills. The quick play around the box we’ll get better with, and we have to because I think we’ll be a good side, but we have to be more clinical, especially in both boxes.”

There were aspects of the performance that pleased Wilder.

“I thought the attitude and play overall was good, and the creation of chances was good,” he added.