Abbo: We Kept Going
Hinckley AFC manager Carl Abbott praised the way his side ‘kept going’ in their 2-1 victory at Pershore Town yesterday.
AFC fell behind on the hour after Joe Walsh gave the hosts the lead, but the same player put through his own net with fifteen minutes to go before Dom Smith powered home a header in stoppage time to give his side a late win.
And despite not being at their best, Hinckley are grinding out results, which pleased Abbott. He said: ‘That’s twice we’ve done that now in our resurgence: away at Coventry Copsewood was similar, and we’ve kept going today.
‘We’ve not been vintage by a long shot, and last Saturday we weren’t at our best either, so there’s been a little slip in our performance levels but we’re still competing in games.
‘At the start of the season we had a bad run, but it was so confusing to put your finger on because we weren’t playing that badly.
‘This is a proper bad run now – this group of players is better than those two performances, but we’re staying in games and we’re competing until the last minute, an you’ve got to be pleased with that.
‘I’m especially pleased because our support again was fantastic, with this being the furthest away game from Hinckley. We’re aware of that, so apologies for the performance but it’s three points up and another win.’
After falling behind, Abbott was forced into making substitutions. Nathan Walker was one of them, and it was his set pieces that were converted in the final quarter of an hour.
‘Nathan’s a good lad, and we get on really well, but I’ve found out how to manage him now. He probably won’t thank me for it, but he gets into a groove where he’s playing so well, and his performance levels are sky high, but then he’ll start strutting and he’ll drop away.
‘If you just pull him up by his boot straps, and he certainly doesn’t thank you for it – for a week I’m his worst enemy – I find that he comes back with the bit between his teeth and he puts in some real displays.
‘That’s what we’ve done really. I thought his performance levels dropped off last week, I thought Ross’ did too, and we thought we’d stick a rocket up his backside. I know the reaction I’ll get now – he was great when he came on and next Saturday he and Ross, quite possibly, could be reunited in midfield and hopefully we’ll get raised performance levels.’
However, Hinckley missed two penalties in the first half that could have put the game to bed. Andy Yarnold saved from Marco Adaggio and JJ Melligan in the space of three minutes to keep the scores level at the interval.
‘JJ’s our penalty taker, but Marco won the penalty and wanted to take it. I might have been a little bit more annoyed about that had we not then had a second one and missed that as well.
‘I said to Paul (Tomlinson) when it happened that I an go in there and talk now, instead of shouting, because we had the same opportunity again. JJ and Marco we both trust to take penalties, and we’ll trust them to take penalties next time.
‘JJ’s the club’s penalty taker, Marco is second in line with penalties and that’s the way we’ll move forward.
‘The game could have been out of sight, but we’ve ended up in a dogfight that is a test of our character, spirit and togetherness, and we’ve passed it.
