James Collins believes his players ‘didn’t do enough’ as Wolves under-21s were beaten by 10-man Blackburn Rovers on Monday evening.
Despite playing with a man advantage for over half the game, the Old Gold were unable to reach the same performance levels as in recent weeks and head coach Collins didn’t hide his disappointment. However, he did point out that he hasn’t been let down by his team very often this season, so was quick to highlight what has, on the whole, been a positive start to the season.
On his initial thoughts
“I don’t know where to start. I thought it was a game that was impossible to lose after 25 minutes.
“I thought we were better than them. I thought we hadn’t played very well, but we should be able to cope with them at one end of the pitch and we should have too much for them at the other end of the pitch.
“Then they get a man sent off which makes it even easier or should in theory make it an easier job.
“We got in at half-time and I actually went mad at them because I didn’t think we were doing well enough for the level of game it was – I thought it was a game we should have won. We should’ve won comfortably if we played properly.”
On not doing enough
“Maybe me going made at them at half-time affected them because we came out in the second half and gave two quick goals away.
“Even at 2-0 down, I felt if we played properly and did enough we could’ve still won the game 3-2.
“We didn’t do enough. We produced not enough of the good moves, we didn’t find the spare player, we didn’t switch the play, we didn’t combine.
“Our basic techniques weren’t good enough and it was a real humbling experience because this group of players haven’t let me down very often I have to say.
“They’re good kids and they’re good players but tonight, I thought they let themselves down. I thought they were really disappointing with their performance.
“They’re young players, that does happen. At any level of football, that does happen.”
On the Christmas break coming at the right time
“We get a little Christmas break now which has probably come at a good time. We have to be pleased with the first half of the season.
“We’re going well in the International Cup, we’re mid-table in the league with 26 teams which, we felt with the group we’ve got this year, that’s good.
“I think we can be pleased overall with the first half of the season but tonight was not good enough.”
On 2023
“We won a tournament mid-season, had a decent end to last season staying up in the top division and then this year we’re mid table in what we thought was going to be a really tough year for us.
“We can be delighted with the overall year but if I was watching that tonight and I was our first-team manager, I wouldn’t see anyone on that pitch who I think is going to threaten my group.
“That’s what it’s about. We’ve got to try and get our players performing well so they put pressure on to train and go with the first-team squad.
“There have been games this year where I really thought we’ve done that. Tonight would not be one of them.”
