30 January 2021

Tommy Wright urges Swindon to ‘stick together’ after Hull defeat

30 January 2021

Assistant manager Tommy Wright accepts Swindon are in a “difficult situation” following the 1-0 defeat at top-of-the-table Hull

Greg Docherty’s well-taken goal after five minutes further compounded the relegation fears of a Robins side that have now won just once in 11 games.

Manager John Sheridan’s position at the club has also been questioned by factions of supporters demanding change at the County Ground.

But Wright said: “The biggest thing is sticking together and working hard.

“It’s not easy to remain positive as confidence affects players, but we have to turn it around soon – we know that.

“We didn’t come here and think, ‘This is a free hit’. We wanted to come here and play.

“It can turn quickly in football and it’s up to us to make that happen.

“We know our form is not good and we need to improve that. But we have to keep fighting and keep working hard and hopefully we can turn it around.”

Swindon were not short of commitment at the KCOM Stadium, but they were always up against it once Docherty made the early breakthrough.

Dan Crowley was the architect of a fine team goal as his threaded pass allowed George Honeyman the chance to cross from the right.

Docherty was given far too much space to control the football before firing high into the roof of the net.

Swindon improved markedly after the restart, but they were comfortably kept at bay by a well-organised Hull backline.

Town’s home game on Tuesday against fellow relegation candidates Wigan now takes on even greater significance given the plight of both sides.

Wright added: “Every game’s big now until the end of the season.

“We have to look at ourselves on Monday and see who’s right and ready to go. We’ll keep going.

“We do need to be more positive in our play, but confidence is a massive thing in football.

“We’ve got to stick together.”

Head coach Grant McCann admitted Hull needed to show plenty of defensive resolve to claim the three points that their first-half display warranted.

He said: “They beat us at the County Ground so it was important we responded to that.

“Every game’s difficult in this league, so I feel as if that was a big win for us. In the second half we had to dig in and stay strong.

“I thought we were very good in the first half – some of the passages of play were excellent – but in the second half we had to show the other side of our game.

“We tried something different in the second half – we tried playing Dan Crowley in a false-nine position – but it didn’t work for us, so we reverted to what we did in the first half.

“We huffed and puffed a little bit in the second half but I don’t think we were in any real danger.”

McCann added: “Defensively, we’ve shown from the turn of the year that we are really good – we were organised and our shape was good.

“In the second half half we could have easily taken our foot off the pedal in terms of our defensive organisation, but we stayed strong.

“We can’t grumble. It’s a great response from the players (following Tuesday’s defeat at Accrington). Mentally for the players, to get three points is massive. It’s a big win.”

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