After drawing with Walsall, Tommy says Wycombe must beat Boston and Bristol Rovers.
Home comforts
By Tommy Mooney. Wednesday, 21 March 2007.
After drawing with Walsall, Tommy says Wycombe Wanderers' home games with Boston and Bristol Rovers are critical to their promotion push.
Hi everyone.
We played well against Walsall last Saturday, even if we only got a point.
We played against the strongest defence in the division but we rarely created any decent chances. We finished the game really strongly though.
I thought we would have a chance if we kept a clean sheet. To be fair, they had a couple of chances early in the game which they should have scored from. That would have changed the game.
We went on to boss the game without endangering them too much, even though we were positive and played three up front. We had lots of the ball but could not break them down. That's disappointing.
At any other stage of the season, this would have been a good result. But we are chasing points and we look at it as being two points lost. I think a draw was a fair result though. They might look at the chances they missed and feel they deserved to win. But we dominated possession and played the game in their half.
We are playing Boston on Friday so that means training today and Thursday. It has messed my golfing schedule up though!
If you look at where the teams are in the division - we are seventh, they are third from bottom - you would think we should win. But it's never as easy as that. We lost to the rock bottom of the league team recently when we went to Torquay. Hopefully we will learn from that. There are no easy games at this stage of the season. Clubs at the bottom are fighting for their lives.
But we are at home, as we are the following Tuesday against Bristol Rovers. After drawing against Walsall, our next two games are massive.
We will be missing Jermaine Easter for the next three games as he's suspended. We would have been without him for Boston and Bristol Rovers anyway as he's been called up by Wales. While we will miss him, we were not surprised to hear of his call-up. We were delighted for him.
Jermaine not being around does put a bit more pressure on myself and Scott McGleish. It's up to us to play our part. We have played together a few times this season, so it won't be new. I'm confident we will have enough to cause them problems.
We will be without Ricardo Batista and Fola Onibuji too. Ricardo has been called up to Portugal Under-21s while Fola is with Nigeria.
Matt Bloomfield could be out too. He injured his ankle against Torquay but we are not sure how long he will be out for. We are hopeful he might be back this week though.
We will miss all of them. We are talking about players who have played the majority of the season. We don't have the biggest squad so it will be a big test.
On a brighter note, we had Ian Stonebridge's benefit dinner last weekend. It went really well thanks to some excellent organisation. Stoney was pleased with how it went. The auction made more money than Stoney thought it would, which was great news.
Tommy, are you considering going into management at the end of your playing career? If so, who ideally would you like to manage?
Jonathan Saunders
Coaching and management is definitely the next step. I would like to learn about them. Over the years I have developed ideas about how things should be done. I'd like to think that a few years down the line there would be a managerial role out there. As for choosing a club, I don't think you can. It's hard enough being a player when there are a number of positions available at a club, but with a manager, there is only one. It would be great to get a job anywhere, so you can't really pick one. If I could, then my time at Watford and Birmingham was fantastic. They are the two clubs closest to my heart. Hopefully they will be established Premier League clubs when I get into management.
Hey Tommy! I'm a regular at Adams Park and it's always great to see how much you enjoy your football and the way you interact with the crowd. Have you always been like this or as you've got older have you started to appreciate what a privilege it is to be a footballer?
Andy Wilson
I have to say that I knew how privileged I was right from the outset. Even in my early days as a professional, I understood what it means to players to hear the home fans cheering them on, so interacting with the crowd is not something I have just started to do. It's always been part of my game. I try and play the game like the fans would. Having banter with them is all part of the game now. I understand what they are feeling and what would make them happy.
I am a Watford fan and you are still a cult hero at the club. Do you ever regret leaving Watford and what do you think of the team's chances in The FA Cup Semi Final?
Mark Weaver
First and foremost, it was made clear to me when Graham Taylor was leaving that it was the right time for me to leave the club. There was no real effort from the club to try and keep me. There was a big change over at that time under Vialli and it would not include me. The decision was taken out of my hands. If I had signed a new contract I would have completed ten years' service - that would have been great. I would have liked to have stayed. It was a big wrench to leave after eight years.
As for the Semi-Final, it's a fantastic tie for the club. It's a difficult game though. It's a shame the game is on Saturday - I would have gone if it was Sunday.
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