Mark Sampson has called upon a mental reset ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Northampton in-order to best maximise the team’s chances of picking up a first three points of the season…
Boro fell to a 3-2 defeat against Carlisle on Saturday In a topsy-turvey match that went one way then the other.
Despite the set-back, Sampson had praise for the way that the players and staff at the football club conducted themselves during an ‘incredibly challenging’ week.
“It has been an incredibly challenging week," Sampson said. "Credit to everyone at the football club, the way in which they have conducted themselves and tried their best to do the right things. It is always difficult when things off the field are out of your control and affect your preparation and what you are trying to do on a day to day basis. I really cannot fault anyone at the football club, to anyone at the training ground for keeping focused on what is important. Trying to help the players perform on a Saturday, and try to put on a performance to make our supporters proud.
“In terms of the game, we have a choice at this moment. Do we look at the game and look at the negatives or do we look at the game and take the positives? We have got to have a balance. I thought there were lots of good things I saw in that performance that after only two days on the training ground. Our ability to try and create a goal through moving the ball and opening some spaces, and we scored two very good goals in terms of moving the ball from deep areas into higher areas, and then finishing.”
“We know we have got some young players in important positions at the moment. Sometimes, those young players are only going to learn on a matchday, and those mistakes can be costly. I have got to say; their application has been excellent. What you know with these players is they will learn their lessons very quickly, and we know we need to do some work now before Tuesday.”
Tuesday’s match is the perfect opportunity for Stevenage to bounce back and Sampson says the group are together in terms of their aims and how they will set about achieving them.
“We have agreed as a group of how we are going to go about this and how we are going to move forward. We want to address things. We do not want to be bottom of this division. We want to make sure we are winning football matches on a far more consistent basis, we are producing performances to a far higher standard. I have seen some things today that show me we are moving in the right direction.
“We have got to make sure we keep moving in the right direction. It is important now in these tough moments, that we know there is no other answer. Like a family. When you go through tough times, you start to understand, are we together or are we not? I am absolutely 100% certain that this changing room are together. They are connected, they are committed. They are ready to work really hard to change results.
“We are not happy we are losing football matches. We are really not. We want to make sure on Tuesday, we are brighter, sharper and better. We turn these good phases of games into a 90-minute performance and get three points on the board.
“If I am a supporter, I want to win football matches number one. We are not doing that. I understand that they are going to be frustrated with us not getting results. The last thing we want is to play at home and not win football matches. What we always ask for is that in these tough times, we do stick together. Our job as a club, is to support the players on the field.
“On Tuesday, it is imperative that we put this to the back of our minds. We puff out our chests and we all come here with a fresh mindset to be at our maximum level. All of us together. Supporters, staff behind the scenes, players, to try and turn this bad run of results into a much better run of results.”
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