Quinn: "We Lacked Quality"
Jimmy Quinn was disappointed after seeing his side fail to capitalise on their dominance against relegation-threatened Weymouth.
On an afternoon when the Abbey experienced everything from sunshine to snow and everything in between, the U's manager watched his team enjoy the majority of possession but fail to make it pay.
"That was frustrating," he admitted. "We dominated from start to finish but lacked the quality to put the ball in the net and that was the overall tale. Weymouth didn't deserve anything, they just showed a bit of endeavour to defend, and it was more down to ourselves not showing enough quality.
"Near the end we had a couple of corners and free kicks and we were listless about what we were doing with them. Yes the conditions were difficult and probably suited Weymouth more than us. We passed the ball from the back through the middle but when it got up front I wasn't happy with our forward play - apart from young Jack (Jeffery).
"I don't think we set the play up well enough to score a goal and that's been a problem in recent games, but I can't fault the lads' effort. We dominated the game but there were a couple of scary moments when we switched off and they broke on us. The mental side of it tells you that you've just got to keep plugging away and you could see our lads getting disappointed because we haven't scored, but there's nothing wrong with winning 1-0 and we could have been a bit tougher mentally and forced it a bit more.
"We didn't really have a shot in anger and that was a disappointment, but it was a good effort by the lads. We've still got a good home record but you'd have to say that was two points dropped."
On a day in which United dropped two points while our play-off rivals gained three, Quinn made special mention of four players whose efforts particularly impressed him.
"I thought young Robbie (Willmott) did well when he came on again, and young Jack and Paul Carden were two of the best players in our side along with Wayne Hatswell. We rode our luck once or twice taking chances at the back in the first half in particular, but in the second half it was mostly one-way traffic and they were just trying to catch us on the break.
"That's not the way I try to play football but they obviously came here to defend for a point, they're fighting for their lives and we knew that, so good luck to them but I'm disappointed.
"There are things we can take out of the game and at times we passed the ball well, but we faltered around the box and that culminated in the free kicks. We practice them in training but we didn't work them well enough to get a shot on target - their goalkeeper has probably come in without any mud on his kit because we didn't really threaten him.
However Quinn added, "I've told the players they can take confidence from the effort alone because it wasn't there on Tuesday, and we've got another big fight on our hands on Monday because Ebbsfleet are very similar to Crawley; they'll get about us."
Quinn handed 18-year-old West Ham loanee his full debut up front alongside Lee Boylan and left Crawley loanee Magno Vieira on the bench, but he hinted that both players will be included in the starting line-up on Monday evening at Ebbsfleet.
"Jack came on the other night when Magno was out of the team because of the (terms of his loan) deal and he did very well so to me it would have been unfair to put Mags straight back in, but we've got another game on Monday and it was always my intention to change things around a little bit to keep it fresh. One or two will be rested on the bench and a couple will come in to give us some fresh legs.
"I thought we looked a little bit shaky at the back at times today and Mags will probably get a start on Monday, and I think Jack's done enough to stay in the side. We took him off as a precaution because he just hurt his back a little bit. He went to the right wing when we went 4-4-2 but he had a very good game.
"He was very unlucky not to score with that chance on the left side of the box when he curled it and it's just gone round the post," he added. "It needed something spectacular like that to win the game today and we didn't produce enough of it.
"There was one ball that flashed across the box that Mags nearly got a touch on, but with the possession we had today we should have worked it a bit better to get more shots away.
"We didn't have anybody out there who wanted to take the bull by the horns and make something happen; we were hoping it would happen rather than making it happen and that's the different between winning a game of football and not."
United are next in action at Ebbsfleet United on Monday at 7.45pm.
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