Michael Appleton was delighted with the result this evening after his side defeated Plymouth Argyle at LNER Stadium, on a night which proved to be a little different to what he envisaged ahead of kick off.
“I thought it was going to be a frustrating one if I’m honest. But we came out of the traps quickly and I thought we were fantastic and could have been two or three up. Then I thought it was a bit scrappy for the rest of the first half but we looked the most dangerous team.
“But in the second half we upped it, I got into them a little bit at half time about being on the front foot and being aggressive and I thought we did that and there was only going to be one winner in that second half.” Michael said.
He continued: “We were delighted with the performance but we were arguably better with the ball last Saturday than we were tonight. But keeping a clean sheet is massive, so if we continue in that vein then it will give us a great base to go forward.”
Michael spoke about the first professional goal for Brennan Johnson which sealed the victory, it was a sign of a young man in a good place at the moment highlighted by the coolness of his finish.
“It’s one of them where you can get in there [in the box] too early. He knew he wasn’t to get there when he came into the box initially, so he hung back a bit but as the ball goes in the air you could see he then quickened up to get to it and it was a tougher finish than people probably think. It was a difficult one but he made it look easy.”
Finally, Michael spoke about the visit of Ipswich Town to LNER Stadium this weekend and it’s a game that everyone is looking forward to and the players are already fully focussed on the task at hand.
“It’s going to be great, they are a very, very good side. We had some good games with them last year and I know we’re very different now, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s a good game because in terms of motivation I won’t need to say too much, I’ll give them as much information as I can tactically but in terms of getting them being up for the game it's be a given.”
You can get your match pass for the game against The Tractorboys this weekend, to see all the game live from LNER Stadium. It costs just £10 to see every moment of the game LIVE as it happens, to buy your match pass – CLICK HERE