Stow ke Managers' Press Conference | Vital Football

Stow ke Managers' Press Conference

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'We have to look at that' - Every word from Michael O'Neill pre-Blackpool press conference
Team news and injury updates as Stoke City head to Blackpool in the Championship

Michael O'Neill is trying to get Stoke City back to winning ways. (Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire)
Stoke City head to Blackpool for the first time in a decade looking to get back on winning form. Here is Michael O'Neill's pre-match press conference in full...
Great news for Jacob Brown to win an international call-up?
Yes it is, great for Jacob. I think it shows the progress he’s made since he came to the club.
We obviously bought him as a young player. He was very raw but we saw a lot of good things in his game. I think he’s continuing to develop and progress.
I had a conversation previously with Steve Clarke about him and I knew they’d been watching him. I think it’s great for him to get involved.
Particularly just to be around the squad and to get used to it is a positive. He’s never had that experience of being away with an international team before as far as I know and they’re two very important games with Scotland in position to clinch a World Cup qualifying play-off spot.

It’s an exciting time for him to be involved.
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Can you put your finger on why Stoke have let leads slip?
I think if you look at the game on Saturday, individual errors initially are the problem.
The first and second goals are down to an error and then the decisions we make in the second goal are very poor.
Then a little bit of anxiety creeps in and the third goal is similar to goals we’ve lost in recent times.
I think when you lead in games as we have done in three of those four games and you ultimately lose them it’s always going to be disappointing.
We have to look at that – is it a mentality thing or is it a tactical thing? The reality is that we’ve not defended well enough at those moments in the game and we’ve been punished for not defending well enough. That’s the key really.
Things have happened at different times. I thought we were well in control of the game at Sheffield United when we conceded almost against the run of play. Saturday’s was incredible really because the goals happened in a short space of time.
That shook us, you could see that, in terms of our body language a bit. We’ve got to learn from that as a team. It’s been a harsh learning curve in the last few games but ultimately we have to learn, we have to move on and get ready to play.
Blackpool have strong wide men and have had impressive wins, including Saturday’s at Sheffield United. You won’t want any fragility in your team there?
No we’ll not. We have to play against a team which is going to be very hungry.
They’ve come up from League One via the play-offs and for a number of their players it’s possibly their first season in the Championship and they’ll be very keen to show they’re more than capable of playing at this level. I think you always get that from clubs.
Players always want to catch the eye as well so they’ll have a real hunger about how they want to play. We have to match that. It’s the first thing we have to match.
Then obviously we have to play our own game as well. We have to go and play. Conditions up there can be tricky with the wind but we have to deal with that.
The most important thing is that we were 3-0 up on Saturday and to be 3-0 up we must have done a lot of things well. We have to focus on the positive – and address the negative as well. That’s what we’ve tried to do since Saturday.

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More than 2,000 Stoke fans going to Blackpool?
It’s a fantastic travelling support. Obviously Blackpool is a bit of an attraction! But that’s brilliant, we’ve had great away support this season.
We’re aware that we’ve lost games away from home when we’ve been in good positions so the next two games give us the chance to put it right. It’s great we have this level of support.
As an international manager you’re team became very difficult to beat – are you thinking about bringing in some battle-hardened and more experienced players to kill the game? Or to hold people to account or calm them down?
You always look to your experienced players in those situations. I don’t envisage us bringing in those types of players at this minute in time if I’m honest. We have to believe in the players we have in the building, we have to believe in how we play.
I thought a lot of our play on Saturday was excellent. We’ve played some really good football this season and we don’t want to become just a battle-hardened team to be honest because I don’t think ultimately that will get us to where we want to go.
If you look at us this season and go through the games to say we were outplayed in that game, there aren’t many teams you can say have done that. I think that shows the team has made a lot of progression.
The results in recent weeks have been severe on us, there’s no doubt about that. They’ve obviously affected the mood compared to where we were in the last international break.
But it’s four games and we have to show that, if anything, that this is the experience we learn from and there are certain things in games we have to do better.