Plymouth
“We had enough possession, enough opportunities, and we’ve got to start taking our chances. Maybe, that’s our weakness, when we get up there, we haven’t got that clinical finisher that scores the goals.
“I am not disappointed with the commitment or the way we played, the biggest disappointment was that little bit of quality we lacked in the final third to turn all the possession and area dominance into better chances.
“We were sloppy for the first twenty minutes, we started slowly and they got a goal. From them on it was one way traffic except for them breaking now and then. Larrieu didn’t have a shot to save in the second half and about ninety percent of the game was played in their half of the pitch. We just didn’t take the opportunities and the chances.”
Pulis wasn’t over impressed with referee Trevor Kettle and thought his side should have had two penalties. He added, “The one in the first half was an absolute stone bonk penalty. I think Tony Capaldi has just done the defender and he’s caught him. The referee has put his whistle to his mouth and then pulled it back down. He had a good look at it and couldn’t have been better positioned.
“Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t but we are more disappointed at having so much play in the final third and not really creating the most of our opportunities. For an hour we completely dominated but made their goalkeeper save only about three times.”
Steve Cotterill saw the Clarets end a run of games without a win that stretched back to Boxing Day and was quick to admit it wasn’t a fluent performance. “It was a gritty, dogged and determined performance and I think it was a difficult pitch for both teams really,” he said after the game.
“The only way I felt they would score was through a long throw into the box and a second ball bounce down with someone like Wotton or Nalis getting on the end of it, but I thought we defended those situations very well. We knew we had to play a big side today so we knew there would be plenty of balls put into the box and I felt we dealt with that very well.
“If you look at the stats, we got nine out of ten touches on the first ball from any set play and when you do that you nullify a set play being scored against you by about 90 per cent.”
He was obviously relieved at finally getting the win and added, “We knew that win would come and it is great to have 43 points and be two points away from the top seven. We’ve got to carry on now in the next couple of weeks and we’ve got some difficult games coming up. We’ll try and do our best.
“We’ve had two clean sheets on the bounce and we are delighted with that. And now I’m looking forward to enjoying a nice Chinese tonight with a couple of glasses of wine.”
Asked about Michael Ricketts, who scored on his home debut, Steve said, “I thought he deserved his goal and we were all pleased for him. It was a fantastic finish and we know that if we get him in those areas, he will score goals.
“I fancied him as soon as he got the ball from Micah. We’ve had a couple of training sessions when we have looked at him and he can finish if we get him into those areas. He has to try and get himself fitter because he hasn’t played much football lately and he’s a big lad, so we have to try and trim him down a little bit in the coming months.”
At that point he went off for his Chinese.