I'm really, really proud of them today

Last updated : 22 August 2005 By Tony Scholes

Having made comments such as, “Winning is everything,” and giving no indication that he thought his players should have put the ball out of play, we have decided not to contaminate the site with the views of the disgraceful Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd.

Steve Cotterill’s first concern was for the welfare of his goalkeeper. “He’s been taken to hospital and we don’t know any more than that at the moment,” Steve said after the game. “It is his neck and throat but I don’t really know what to say on that until he comes back but I can tell you that we are absolutely gutted about it.

“It came at a bad time for us in the game too, at 2-1 down we were the only team that was going to score. It is bad enough conceding a third goal but the manner in which we conceded it was very unfortunate.

“Our goalkeeper was on the floor, coughing and spluttering and he could have been dying. That is why the referee has apologised and I did think the referee had a decent game. Maybe he was under pressure because he had given us a cast iron penalty.

“People can have their opinions on whether the referee should have blown his whistle but he did apologise to us at the end of the game and we have to accept that. He went up greatly in my estimation for doing that. It hasn’t made it any better for us but we’ll accept it.”

Discussing the injury problems he added, “Frank had to play and we had to take that gamble with him because there was no one else. John McGreal and Wayne Thomas were both on the bench because there is no one else. We haven’t had a fully fit squad all season and we cannot afford not to have the experienced players in our team. Having said that I thought the young boys were fantastic today, and the experienced ones too.

“Young Karl Bermingham has only just met the lads and he played wide right, he’s a striker. Kyle Lafferty played wide and he’s a striker. I’m really, really proud of them today and we found out about the players in the situation they were faced with.

“We just need a bit of luck because we haven’t had much this season. We’ll be OK though, we’re not quite getting what we deserve at the moment. We’re man enough for defeat though and we’ll take it whether we deserve it or not and we’ll move on.”

When asked about the chances of more players coming in he concluded, “I’ve rung every club in the Premiership, bar Arsenal, Chelsea, Bolton, Everton and Wigan. Squads are thinning out in the Premiership, so they are under pressure too, so if anyone knows of a good free transfer, please tell me.”