Mickey Lewis on United's Penalty Heartbreak
Assistant Manager Mickey Lewis felt that his side showed character and resilience as they were cruelly beaten on penalties by Southend in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy last night. A penalty shoot-out knocked the U’s out after a thrilling 3-3 draw in 90 minutes and it was left to Mickey to talk through the game with Yellow Player.
“It is what it is with penalties,” Mickey said afterwards. “Nobody wants extra time really with the games coming up but it is a cruel way to go out.”
“With no disrespect to our lads in any way we had a few knocks and a few people were playing in different positions and we had young Tyrone starting at home for the first time. We went a goal down but reacted really well and I thought that up to half time we were the better team.
“Southend are a good side, I think they are fourth in the league, and they were always going to come at us and I just felt we had a bit of a mad ten minutes where we didn’t defend well. That was all over; from the front and all over the pitch. Luke O’Brien had a really good game but made a mistake for the goal and then they scored a very good goal to be fair to them.
“But we came back again and showed really good character. We had a lot of things in the box, things just going across the goalmouth, and I think we deserved to get that goal back to force it to penalties. And then when it gets to that stage you just never know.
“I had a little feeling that we could win it when it got to the shoot-out and I thought our penalties were good. Alfie’s was a nice height for the keeper but he made a good save and Clarkey was dead unlucky with a couple of theirs. I didn’t think theirs were great and he got a hand to a couple but at the end of the day they have gone through and we will move on and focus on Bradford in the league on Saturday.”
See the full interview, match highlights and video reaction from Sean Rigg and Ty Marsh, only in Yellow Player.