Early Goals

Peter Taylor believes it will certainly be an influence on our Championship survival.

City conceded two early goals on Saturday, and wsa a feature of our game early on in the season.

‘I thought after we scored our goal, we believed we could get something from the game but beforehand I wasn’t so sure with the way we started the game,’ he said.

‘The first goal, again, was disappointing. We actually had possession but gave it away in a bad area and end up bringing one of the players down to concede the free-kick form which they scored from.

‘So in every way it’s a very, very disappointing goal for us to concede. It put us on the back foot and you want to get at them but they’ve got two very quick strikers, which meant it wasn’t easy to play against them.

‘Their second was from some good play by them because of the pace in the build-up.

‘They’ve got quality players in their side and are one of the best sides in this division.

‘There’s no doubt about that and in Andy Johnson, they’ve probably got one of the best strikers in the division as well. He kept everyone on their toes throughout the ninety minutes.’

We need to sort out our defence. Dawson will be a big blow but I expect to see Roberts from Tranmere in thew builing by Saturday. I think Damien shoul re-unite with Leon in defence and Ryan can play at right-back.

On Saturday, mark Lynch struggled during the game, and Taylor made a brave decision is subbing the player after only half an hour.

‘I just thought, in the end, we wanted a left footer to deliver it from the left hand side.

‘There were too many times that it was coming back onto the right foot and people weren’t knocking naturally forward early enough.

‘If we’d have maybe got some diagonal service to Jon Parkin then it would have caused them a few problems.

‘So that’s why I went for a change on put a left footer in the position.

‘It was hard on Mark Lynch but in the end you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do in order to try and get a result.’

We are slipping down the league – no denying that but other teams are picking up their performances. We will sometime, and they wont keep it up. Just keep the faith – Peter still believes we will survive -and why wouldn’t he?

‘All I’ve said to the players is that the performance proves to myself that we’re definitely not too far away.

‘I know our league position is disappointing and we know that we’re involved in a scrap to try and stay in the league.

‘But I’ve got no doubt in my own mind that we’re good enough to do so.

‘We’re having problems at the minute but out last four matches have been against incredibly good teams.’