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Adam Le Fondre’s fifth goal of the season wasn’t enough for Wanderers to take anything away from Elland Road as Caleb Ekuban and Pablo Hernandez’s efforts saw Leeds run out winners on Good Friday.
The home side had gone two goals ahead in the clash before Le Fondre halved the deficit with the second period just nine minutes old.
Despite the Trotters’ best efforts to equalise however, they came up short come the final whistle as they slipped to a narrow defeat in Yorkshire.
And speaking following full time, manager Phil Parkinson covered these points…
On the game as a whole…
I thought we started the match slowly. In the first half in particular, we gave a team that could have potentially been nervous given their form of late a huge lift in front of a capacity crowd.
That is the big disappointment for me today because we had spoken about what we needed to do inside that first period of the game and went through it in training yesterday, but didn’t implement it in the match.
That has ultimately cost us – not just with the goal, but with the lift we gave to Leeds.
After their opener, we played some good football and a lot of our approach play was good. We had some good control play in that first half, but we also looked vulnerable at times on the counter attack against a side with some talented players.
There were many aspects of the performance that were good however and we managed to get the goal back before having some good chances to equalise.
At 2-0 down, we could have let our heads drop, but we didn’t – we kept going and deservedly got the goal back that we did and while I felt we would go and get the equaliser, it wasn’t to be.
On Adam Le Fondre being on the scoresheet once again…
It was a great finish from Alfie and a good delivery from Sammy. Without Morais in the team, Sammy really stepped up to the plate with the set-play deliveries.
We also had a couple of good chances in the first half as well – Jan Kirchhoff’s had a great chance with a header, but Alfie’s goal really was very good all round.
We had our chances after we pulled the goal back too – Sammy’s had an opportunity where he shot from the edge of the box and it’s been cleared off the line alongside Will Buckley’s header and Sammy’s other effort from distance.
It is moments of quality that change the course of the game however. That said though, we dug in there today and never really let their goals affect us.
We kept going, but now we’ll analyse the performance and speak to the lads tomorrow about what we could have done better.
We’ve got an honest group of players though and they know that in those opening stages, they were just second best and it proved costly.
On Ben Alnwick’s performance…
Ben was superb for us yet again today – he’s having a good personal season. When you’re chasing the game, you sometimes leave yourselves a little open at the back and when called upon, he made a number of great saves.
And finally, on the superb backing from the fans…
It was terrific support from the fans today and I am very disappointed that we haven’t been able to send them home with at least a point.
Tuesday is another day though and we’ll be ready for that game against Birmingham where they will be crucial once again.
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The home side had gone two goals ahead in the clash before Le Fondre halved the deficit with the second period just nine minutes old.
Despite the Trotters’ best efforts to equalise however, they came up short come the final whistle as they slipped to a narrow defeat in Yorkshire.
And speaking following full time, manager Phil Parkinson covered these points…
On the game as a whole…
I thought we started the match slowly. In the first half in particular, we gave a team that could have potentially been nervous given their form of late a huge lift in front of a capacity crowd.
That is the big disappointment for me today because we had spoken about what we needed to do inside that first period of the game and went through it in training yesterday, but didn’t implement it in the match.
That has ultimately cost us – not just with the goal, but with the lift we gave to Leeds.
After their opener, we played some good football and a lot of our approach play was good. We had some good control play in that first half, but we also looked vulnerable at times on the counter attack against a side with some talented players.
There were many aspects of the performance that were good however and we managed to get the goal back before having some good chances to equalise.
At 2-0 down, we could have let our heads drop, but we didn’t – we kept going and deservedly got the goal back that we did and while I felt we would go and get the equaliser, it wasn’t to be.
On Adam Le Fondre being on the scoresheet once again…
It was a great finish from Alfie and a good delivery from Sammy. Without Morais in the team, Sammy really stepped up to the plate with the set-play deliveries.
We also had a couple of good chances in the first half as well – Jan Kirchhoff’s had a great chance with a header, but Alfie’s goal really was very good all round.
We had our chances after we pulled the goal back too – Sammy’s had an opportunity where he shot from the edge of the box and it’s been cleared off the line alongside Will Buckley’s header and Sammy’s other effort from distance.
It is moments of quality that change the course of the game however. That said though, we dug in there today and never really let their goals affect us.
We kept going, but now we’ll analyse the performance and speak to the lads tomorrow about what we could have done better.
We’ve got an honest group of players though and they know that in those opening stages, they were just second best and it proved costly.
On Ben Alnwick’s performance…
Ben was superb for us yet again today – he’s having a good personal season. When you’re chasing the game, you sometimes leave yourselves a little open at the back and when called upon, he made a number of great saves.
And finally, on the superb backing from the fans…
It was terrific support from the fans today and I am very disappointed that we haven’t been able to send them home with at least a point.
Tuesday is another day though and we’ll be ready for that game against Birmingham where they will be crucial once again.
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