Daryl McMahon praised his side’s response “across the board” and hailed the team performance that overcame Chelmsford City.
“From last Saturday night to how everyone feels now is a total difference and that’s credit to the players and their performance and work ethic today,” McMahon told BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster. “It was a very good performance today off the back of a not-so-good one last week. On the coach on the way home last Saturday you’re sort of toying with what you might do, what you might not do and the players today, who didn’t perform at all last week, I decided to stick with and think we’ve been rewarded with that. Everyone in the ground’s been rewarded with that.”
The Fleet boss was reluctant to single out individuals but name-checked Jack Connors who held off Robbie Willmott down the left flank. “In particular for me, Jack Connors, who I thought was outstanding,” McMahon said. “Robbie Willmott probably is Chelmsford’s main player, he’s got 20 assists this year, and I thought Jack played very well against him today. Our concentration levels and desire to keep a clean sheet were excellent across the board, not just the back four but the whole team. The work ethic was terrific.”
Kenny Clark’s goal on his 100th appearance also drew praise from the boss: “I joked in the changing room before the game that I fancied him to score today (I didn’t really!) but he said he did as well so I’m delighted for him. I said in my programme notes, he’s a terrific player and has been a great player for the football club. He just loves winning and keeping a clean sheet.”
And the manager was also pleased to see his double substitution pay off, with Andy Drury and Bradley Bubb combining for the second goal. “[Andy] came on and really settled us down again. He made some terrific passes and we could have killed the game off from numerous counter-attacking situations. If we’d lost the game today, Chelmsford could potentially have gone ahead of us, there was a lot on it. We know what was at stake and we’re in the run-in now and we want to keep on winning.”
McMahon also broached the subject of Stuart Lewis’ departure, saying: “He wasn’t playing as much as he wanted to play. We’ve got Dean Rance, Andy Drury, Jack Powell, Sam Deering who can all play centrally and Stuey wasn’t getting as much game time as he wanted. He’s been injured a lot this season as well and for me, at this moment in time, he wasn’t going to get in ahead of those players. And he wanted to go to play some games.”
Listen to the full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/eufcofficial/daryl-mcmahon-after-chelmsford
