Lennon – We Let Ourselves Down Defensively

Manager Neil Lennon has admitted he was disappointed at full time in the loss to Watford yesterday because he felt we at least deserved a point from the game, if not all three.

Speaking to the Official Site following the four three loss, Lennon was pleased with our general attacking approach to the game, but he knows we should’ve dealt with the goals we conceded a lot better than we did.

‘We feel we should have won the game. Going forward, I thought that we were brilliant, but defensively we were a little hesitant. When we’ve managed to get the game back to 3-3 we should just see the game out and take a point. We didn’t do that, and the fourth goal has come from one of our attacks.’

The main frustration for the manager with the fourth goal was the fact that ‘in the entirety of the attack that led to Watford’s goal, we never laid a glove on one of their players’ and effectively just let them waltz towards our goal, relying on the fact they might miss.

‘Yes, we were initially attacking, but we had plenty of numbers back to deal with the attack. We have to be mentally stronger, we should have enough experience at the back to deal with that. You simply can’t score three goals at home and lose the game. It’s very disappointing.’

Lennon goes on to say that he can’t take any ‘heart’ from the fact it was a good game and he knew after 20 minutes that it was likely to be a ‘classic’ as it was showing all the right signs, but it should’ve been a ‘classic’ in our favour, not theirs.

There were of course individual positives to take.

‘Zach took his two goals really well, he’s been a revelation in recent weeks, though there are still a lot of areas where he needs to improve. His decision making at times was a little off, but you expect that with someone who is just a few games into his professional career.’

Again most of the positives were the attacking intent, but in praising them it just highlights that we weren’t on the front foot defensively and we ‘backed off’ a little too much and too often.

‘We should have won the game. Overally, we feel Watford got a little lucky. We’ve shown we can match the top teams in this division. We just need a few more bodies back, because I think in recent weeks we’ve looked a little bit lightweight during games.’