Kalimantan Gull
Well-known member
Mark McGhee's point of view following his side's surprise 1-0 victory at the Boleyn...
Mark McGhee - Brighton & Hove Albion
(On seeing the numbers attending the press conference) - you look like our crowd!
More than we could have hoped for? You're kidding! (Wry grin). We've had some bad results lately - we've lost 2-1, 3-1, and we felt that was very hard on us. We may have deserved to lose but not by those scores and it looked worse than it actually was.
We felt that we could come here and make it difficult. We went to Derby & Sunderland thinking we could win the game. We approached today differently - we came here thinking that we're not gonna lose the game.
We got away with it today. There were a couple of close shaves. I felt that when we did get the ball forward we needed to be more patient and slow the game down a bit.
What can you say about Claridge. I worked with Steve at Millwall & at Wolves. He was fantastic then. He's one of the fittest players I've worked with either as a player or a manager. He has an unbelieveable level of fitness so I had no fears that he could do it even after being away from this level for 18 months. He was probably the difference between us losing and winning. The way he kept the ball was superb.
Leon Knight? Yes he was dropped. I've no idea how he felt about that. I don't know how I'm supposed to know that. Adam Virgo's suspended next week so he'll be playing next week.
I thought Virgs did a clumsy challenge - not a bad challenge. The lad (Mullins) wasn't hurt and I thought he overreacted. When everybody gets involved it's inevitable that the ref's gonna send someone off. You try to tell them when two players come together to leave them - the ref will normally just book them - but when they all get involved in a fracas like that the ref will send two off. I think he had no choice - they were pulling eachother's jerseys, pushing eachother's faces. It was ugly.
We could lose next week at Burnley. I didn't learn anything today that I didn't already know. Possibly how to play in a more pragmatic manner. We may have to do that even at home. Our supporters may have to be more tolerant. If it's gonna get us results that's the most important thing.
Mark McGhee - Brighton & Hove Albion
(On seeing the numbers attending the press conference) - you look like our crowd!
More than we could have hoped for? You're kidding! (Wry grin). We've had some bad results lately - we've lost 2-1, 3-1, and we felt that was very hard on us. We may have deserved to lose but not by those scores and it looked worse than it actually was.
We felt that we could come here and make it difficult. We went to Derby & Sunderland thinking we could win the game. We approached today differently - we came here thinking that we're not gonna lose the game.
We got away with it today. There were a couple of close shaves. I felt that when we did get the ball forward we needed to be more patient and slow the game down a bit.
What can you say about Claridge. I worked with Steve at Millwall & at Wolves. He was fantastic then. He's one of the fittest players I've worked with either as a player or a manager. He has an unbelieveable level of fitness so I had no fears that he could do it even after being away from this level for 18 months. He was probably the difference between us losing and winning. The way he kept the ball was superb.
Leon Knight? Yes he was dropped. I've no idea how he felt about that. I don't know how I'm supposed to know that. Adam Virgo's suspended next week so he'll be playing next week.
I thought Virgs did a clumsy challenge - not a bad challenge. The lad (Mullins) wasn't hurt and I thought he overreacted. When everybody gets involved it's inevitable that the ref's gonna send someone off. You try to tell them when two players come together to leave them - the ref will normally just book them - but when they all get involved in a fracas like that the ref will send two off. I think he had no choice - they were pulling eachother's jerseys, pushing eachother's faces. It was ugly.
We could lose next week at Burnley. I didn't learn anything today that I didn't already know. Possibly how to play in a more pragmatic manner. We may have to do that even at home. Our supporters may have to be more tolerant. If it's gonna get us results that's the most important thing.
