Daryl McMahon is confident his side will pick up points despite their tough start but he wants cooler, calming finishing after his side failed to breach Chesterfield’s goal on the season’s opening day.
“I was happy with the first-half,” he told BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster. “I thought we played pretty well, created some really good opportunities, second half we lacked a bit of flow in our game. We still managed to get in and around their box numerous times but we had too many shots off target when we had the opportunity to hit the target. So lots to work on.
“There were some good bits of play but I expect with the quality of players we have to hit the target with certain opportunities, especially in the second half. It’s happened. But we move on. I thought Chesterfield were decent in the second half, they managed the game well, they slowed it down and stifled the game which didn’t help us. We played through them numerous time. On another day it could have been a different score.”
Ebou Adams hit the bar and even after Zavon Hines opened the scoring from the spot, the Fleet boss was holding out hope for more than a point.
“It didn’t always fall and we were snatching at stuff, we hit the bottom of the bar, if one goes in I think we’ll win it,” said McMahon. “With 20 minutes to go I’m still thinking we could win the match to be honest with the players we’d got on the pitch. We needed to get a goal quickly and it never came.
“[If Adams had scored], they would have had to come out a little bit more as well. They sat back very deep for the whole game so it would have made it easier in terms of spaces in behind them but you’ve got to take the chances, particularly in that first half… Westy got a couple of great crosses in as well, Shieldsy put a couple of good balls in second half. I could probably give you five chances around their box in the last 10 minutes and we’ve kicked it over the bar or shanked the cross wide under no pressure. We’re still lacking a little bit of quality. We’re fit, there’s no issue with us getting there [into shooting positions], no issue with making things happen.
McMahon revealed that even though some players didn’t feature today, all are in contention for Tuesday night with no injuries to the likes of Luke Coulson or Bagasan Graham. And he refused to worry about Fleet’s tough start after drawing a blank at such an early stage of the campaign.
“It’s a long season,” he said. “There are 45 games to go and we’ll look forward to that. We have played some good stuff today and we have to build on what we’ve done, with the good stuff and eradicate the bad stuff and hit the target a few more times. We know we’ve got a tough start but we’ll pick up points, don’t worry about that.”
Listen to the full interview below.
