Paul Lambert has praised the team tonight for putting aside the Arry factor and earning a huge point from today’s game.
Speaking to the Official Site following the one all draw Lambert said he was pleased with our first half performance, and praised the effort of the lads as they dug in during the second half.
Fair summation really, after the first half the game was there for the taking but we didn’t step up and our overall performance wasn’t good enough today, so we needed the gritty effort to make up for it.
Whether it was tiredness or whatever, I don’t think excuses should be made for our worst performance in probably the last 5 or 6 games. We weren’t doing the basics well enough apart from defending for our lives, but still, they went until the final whistle and were still trying to carve out chances so at least we didn’t park the bus and deliberately sit back.
Performance has to be more spot on though, we can’t keep carrying players who aren’t performing on the day and the 3 upfront suits us far better when it comes to creating chances.
Anyway, enough of my waffle, he’s what Lambert said:
‘I thought we were excellent in the first half and QPR came back strongly in the second. I knew the effect Harry would have on them and it was a massive point for us. We came here with a young team again and I was delighted to get a point. It was a really tough game, but we handled it well.’
Lambert adds that he thinks we were good for the first hour or so, when to be honest we weren’t on the ball in the second half at all. Yes QPR rallied in the second, but never lifted gear ourselves and that was the problem. We gave them too much possession, lost possession way too easily with sloppy passing and didn’t give ourselves the chance to get back into the game.
As you can see in the Match Thread even those of us who have taken heart from improving performances of late, and see the signs of the team clicking can’t offer much in terms of positives from today other than, earlier in the season, this was a game we’d have lost.
Performance simply wasn’t good enough and we know these lads can do far better than that, even allowing for tiredness, even allowing for 3 games in quick succession. Pleased with a point yes, but that performance and the basics are not acceptable, so that has to be put right in the next game.
Lambert’s good will in some ways for many are tied to improving performances because of the start we have had, that has to continue, the performances and the effort cannot be allowed to slip.
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