Magpies boss praises players after Downham win

Heacham boss Paul Hunt praised the attitude of his players after their 3-1 win against Downham Town at the Heacham Sports Field.Goals from Toby Hilliard, Colby Wood and Josh Williams put the Magpies three goals in front before Eoin McQuaid netted a consolation for Downham.Hunt said: “We’re pleased to get a win.”Playing another team who is pushing for promotion in and around the play-off places, you always know it will be difficult.”I thought the attitude of the lads and how hard they worked throughout the game was excellent.”We had to change things two or three times through injuries and just how we had to change the shape of the game and I thought they responded well to that and I thought we made it hard for Downham to get much against us.”We really maximised when we got on the ball and hurt him with the quality of the lads’ runs forward and then the finishes so pleased with it overall. “All wins are different in their own way because at one point we had to change how we were playing. “Halfway through the first half just through they were getting some opportunities down the right-hand side. They had one chance from it, but we needed to change something slightly for that.”The way we adapted in the game was pleasing and that’s a big win for us and we’ve had a few good wins which are all massively important.”I suppose it’s a Christmas game there’s a big crowd down here and it’s a derby so you always want to win them if you can.” The Heacham boss believes the squad has come a long way since the start of the season.”We couldn’t have had any other things jump into the mix to make it harder at the start of the season,” said Hunt. “It was a really difficult time for lots of reasons that we’ve spoken about, but now the lads are starting to understand the shape and structure that we want to play.”They’ve responded to it well, so we’re a lot different side to what we were at the start of the season and we’ve got more strength in depth. “A couple of signings and not so many injuries at the moment have helped. We lost Ben Dear this week and Tommy (Hunt) couldn’t play because he’s broken his ribs so we had got a couple but we’ve got the strength in the squad and everyone understands the jobs.”When you look at it we’ve got young Colby (Wood) playing and he’s a young lad.”We’ve also got two 16-year-olds coming on in Harvey (Pightling) and Connall (Forde) so we’re not a squad full of men that are experienced at this level, we’ve got lads who are learning the trade in this league.”Matty Franks hasn’t been playing because he’s pulled a tendon and usually you wouldn’t bring him back to play this early, but he wanted to give it a go with all the midfielders we are without at the moment. “Ando (Kevin Anderson) has played for nearly a month because of his work and he’s been so busy with the job, but he’s kept himself fit at the gym and that makes a big difference and everyone understands what we’re trying to do.”We can make it difficult for teams, but we can also be dangerous. That’s a great mix of boys have got at the moment.”Hunt feels the belief in the changing room is growing after seeing his side pick up back-to-back wins going into the new year.”I think every good performance compounds what we’re doing is the right thing and I always talk to the lads about good performances,” he said. “We don’t worry about refs and linesman, we try not to get tied up in that, because they hardly ever change the influence of the game.”Everyone argues both ways but we look at ourselves and we’re always looking to move forward and be better the week after.”Every good performance is a build of we’re doing the right things and that makes us a nice strong unit in the dressing room.”Everyone works hard together, gets on well together and that’s when you can get good results.” Downham boss Dale Stokes bemoaned his side’s missed chances, particularly in the first half.Stokes said: “I feel like it was almost the same as what we’ve had in recent weeks where I think it’s a pretty dominant first half and I don’t feel we were under any pressure at any point.”It’s just the same story and we’ve lost the game ourselves. We gave them a goal first half when we were fully in control. We’ve hit the bar, missed another one-on-one and had one cleared off the line.”They’ve had one or two attacks and we should have cleared it but didn’t deal with it and it has fallen straight to their lad who has finished it. “It was such a dominant first half from us in my opinion and I think was kind of the consensus from everyone and we did more than enough to be going in half-time ahead.”I don’t think they caused us any real problems, but it’s been the same story for us.”No disrespect to Heacham but the teams that are down in the bottom five or six of the table are the teams we’ve been dropping points against for whatever reason.”I think that was highlighted with the goals we conceded in the second half where again we’re camped in their box for the first 15 or 20 minutes and should have scored again. “We’ve had another one cleared off the line and their goalkeeper has made a brilliant save from Eoin (McQuaid) then suddenly we get caught in possession from our corner and I think all three goals came from our us having corners.”We got hit on the counter-attack three times and made poor choices when we should have just played it back to the keeper before their third.”I think Reedy’s (Luke Reed) turned and gone to play and slipped so the pitch didn’t help him but I think in some of those situations we just got to deal with it instead of trying to play.”You gotta play in the right areas and have to play at the right times and I think we’ve given them the game because we’ve given them three goals.”Our goalkeeper has not had anything to do other than pick the ball out of his goal three times.”