Still hails his young side as they see off Braintree

Hatters boss John Still felt his young side came of age during their battling 2-1 victory at Braintree on Tuesday night, writes Mike Simmonds.
Steve McNulty had to go off injured against BraintreeSteve McNulty had to go off injured against Braintree
Steve McNulty had to go off injured against Braintree

The Town chief had to withdraw Steve McNulty and Paul Benson in the second half due to injury, but then saw the likes of Alex Lacey, Andy Parry and Jim Stevenson dig in superbly to ensure a crucial triumph.

Still said: “When we lost Paul and Macca, I looked at the age of our side and thought this is going to tell us a lot about if people have grown up.

“But everyone stood up to the challenge, everyone worked hard, in what wouldn’t be the best conditions you’d want them to play in as that bottom end was really, really bad.

“I thought it was up their with our best performances of the season because of the work-rate, organisation and the discipline that the players showed, particularly after losing our two biggest influences on the team.

“A lot of them are still learning because of their age and at the moment, we’re learning and winning, there’s nothing better than that.

“I said before the game that we’d have performances in the season like away to Kidderminster where we played some great football, probably displayed the perfect away performance.

“This (Braintree) is going to be the other side of the coin where everyone’s got to work hard, everyone’s got to dig in, we haven’t got to be pretty, we’ve got to be effective.

“A lot of people were saying to me before the game would you take a point? Well those people don’t know John Still. Home or away, whoever we play, I would never take a point, I would try and win.”

On the problems for McNulty and Benson, Still continued: “Paul at two o’clock wasn’t playing, but he said I think I can go for as long as posssible as we’ve got no (Jon) Shaw and no Alex Wall, while Andre (Gray) missed a couple of weeks with his hamtsing, so we went with it.

“Macca was having a problem with his back and it stiffened up at half time, so we had Parry and Lacey there.

“It was like the Quality Street Gang at the back, but fortunately for them they did their job properly.

“I thought Ronnie (Henry) and Scott Griffiths were outstanding too.”

Still made the decision to drop Luke Guttridge to the bench and revealed that it was down to a change in formations as Hatters lined up with a traditional 4-4-2.

He added: “It was tactical. I looked at the pitch and we needed two wide people as we had to get the ball out wide.

“Shaun Whalley was a bit unfortunate as I would have loved to have gone with him, but he’s just come back from injury.

“We needed wide players as it was the only place where the ball was going to run reasonably true.”

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