BARROW AFC head coach Stephen Clemence says his side will get better after their 5-0 defeat away to Kilmarnock on Friday night
The Bluebirds manager expressed his resolve to use the game as a teaching opportunity in an interview following the game, refusing to sugarcoat anything.
He remarked, “We have more games to play, and we will get better, we’ll improve on that, I’ve got no doubt about it,” in an interview with the team’s official YouTube channel.
“Obviously, whether this is the preseason or not, we’re sad to lose to anyone 5-0.
It’s not what we wish to occur. We trail 1-0 at the break after a wide free-kick set-play.
“Up until that point, the game was very evenly balanced, and we had a few opportunities ourselves that we were unable to take advantage of.”
In the second half, Clemence thought his team was falling short a bit against Kilmarnock, a team that plays in the Europa League tomorrow night.
“I think you could see in the second half that Kilmarnock were ahead of us as far as in pre-season, so yeah, I can understand the reasons why,” he continued. “I don’t want to get beat five.”
“Obviously, we’ve made some roster changes. In addition, there are some trialists on the pitch who probably aren’t up to speed and haven’t done enough training, so we were left a little bit short in the end.”
This week, Clemence, his backroom team, and the players will assess the action from Rugby Park.
Additionally, he believes that the evaluation will yield some insights that will be useful moving ahead.
“You’d rather that result happen now than in a couple of weeks time, and I know there’s plenty to learn,” he stated.
“I’ve learnt a lot (against Kilmarnock), and you are learning about people all the time.”
Rather than the Scottish Premier League team being too hot to handle, Clemence thinks the Bluebirds were the architects of their own demise.
“I believe we made some basic mistakes, and you can make those mistakes when you are tired,” he clarified.
“I thought we did really well in the first half. I said to the boys going out in the second half ‘right you are going again now. This is the first time we’ve asked you to go further, now let’s make sure we start the second half well’.
“Unfortunately, like five minutes later we are 3-0 down, so that obviously didn’t go to plan.
“But it is what it is. We are in pre-season, the majority have played 60 minutes, some have played a little bit longer so that’s good to get minutes in the tank.”
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