REACTION | Luke Ingram Post Match Interview| Needham Market v Long Melford| 08.10.2024 |
Luke Ingram reflects on equalling the club's record goal tally.
DK: A great performance tonight.
LI: Yeah, I don't think anyone's seen that sort of stuff down here before. Good performance from the boys.
Ruthless in front of goal. Probably could have actually been more, but yeah, we'll settle on 12.
DK: A record result for us competitively home or away as well.
LI: Yeah, obviously a nice one to tick off. Another one in the history books and yeah, hopefully, I don't know what the record is, but hopefully that's one to go down in the Suffolk County Cup history books as well.
DK: Four goals for you tonight in 45 minutes.
LI: Yeah, could have been more to be fair. Missed a few chances. I knew I was only playing a half, so I just tried to get my work done in the first half. A couple of good finishes, a couple couldn't miss, but yeah, I've obviously been out injured, so it's nice to just get the monkey off your back. Hadn't scored this season, so it's just one ticked off.
DK: Once we got the second goal, we were ruthless.
LI: Yeah, I mean, it's hard for them. 7-0 down at half-time. I'm not really sure what the team talk can be, but we've done our job. We've kicked on. We've not come out and made it a rubbish half to watch second half, so yeah.
DK: Good professional performance. Can't ask anything more of you lads after that?
LI: No, at the end of the day, the win's the win. Next round, that's all that matters. We've got a big game Saturday at Chorley. It's no good coming here and putting on a performance like that if you're going to go to Chorley and put in a bad one. So, on to Saturday, hopefully no knocks and yeah, we've got to start kicking on in the league as well.
DK: It's now two games in a row now that we've had a Morphew on a hat-trick.
LI: Yeah, I mean, I'll have to help him out Thursday, just get him over the line, try and get that third one. Both of them are club legends, so it's nice to see them getting goals and Keiran can carry on being the league top scorer for now.
DK: Tonight, I believe you've equalled the clubs all time goalscoring record, which I know has been something you've been keen to do.
LI: Yeah, I think I might be level, but yeah, just one more to get, so hopefully maybe I'll land on my 500th appearance and sort of kill two birds with one stone. But yeah, I don't want to stop at that. I want more goals. I want to kick on, I want to keep scoring goals and make it a record that hopefully I'll never get beat and when I'm gone from here, leave something to remember me by.
REACTION | Dan Morphew Post Match Interview | Needham Market v Long Melford| 08.10.2024 |
Stand in captain and double goalscorer Dan Morphew reflects on last night's victory.
DK: Good win tonight, you must be happy with that.
DM: Yeah, it's always difficult in the early stages of the Premier Cup. You don't know what you're going to get draw-wise, teams from different leagues, and of course it's a massive game for them. So they often try and, you know, they're given 100%. And it always can be tough at times, but I thought we kept our standards up well tonight. Yeah, moved the ball well, kept it one-two touch, quick tempo and got our just rewards for doing that.
DK: Club record win, clean sheet, not too bad?
DM: Yeah, again, it's about keeping standards for us, I suppose. Like I said, it's easy to come into these games and maybe take your foot off the gas because you're against a lower level side. But I thought tonight we were professional, we kept our standards up and we moved the ball well, like I say. And yeah, it's a good thing for the club. Obviously, it looks good on paper, 12-0, I suppose it looks good. But for us as players, it's all about just the performance, really.
And I thought first half especially, I thought we played well. Second half, it's going to dip a little bit because of the scoreline and whatever else. But I thought, yeah, we've done well.
DK: And you almost scored a hat-trick! Y
DM: Yeah, doesn't happen too often, does it, Drew? On a perfect hat-trick, I would have been. So one header, one left foot, just needed the right foot. But yeah, I contribute with goals where I can, if I can. And I thought everyone popped in with some tonight, so it's good.
DK: And your second goal, you took like a striker.
DM: Yeah, it fell nicely to me. So a good first touch and just passed it in, really. So yeah, when you've got a good first touch, it makes the second one easy normally. So I was lucky enough that mine stood the test for once and managed to pass it in.
DK: We had seven or eight goalscorers tonight. Can you remember a game where that's happened?
DM: I don't know too many games we've scored seven or eight goals, let alone had eight goalscorers. But it's good it shows you that everyone's working hard, everyone's chipping in and everyone's making runs into the box. Without that, you don't get seven different goalscorers. So it shows that everyone's putting effort in and wanting to get on the end of things. So the fact that we've got seven different goalscorers is a really good thing, I think.
DK: You had a massive point to prove tonight, given the fact you're suspended.
DM: Yeah, I'm in purgatory at the moment, if you like, after Oxford. So just doing what I can to stay fit and hopefully compete for my place back in the team when I'm back from suspension.
DK: If you can get into the team, with competition for places!
DM: It's a good thing. I think it's good for Needham Market to have a squad of 16 players who can all start. No one has a divine right to be in the team, no matter how long you've been here or how many games you've played for the club or how good you think you are. And I think that's a good thing. And so I'll need to earn my place back when the time comes.
DK: Also, you're getting ever closer to the 300 mark.
DM: Yeah, hopefully that's coming soon. I've been thinking it must be coming soon for a long time.
So, yeah, I mean, I'm still a way off, most probably Keiran and Luke, but I'd certainly like to get up to one of Needham's highest ever totals if I can. Some of those three suspended games, I would have been there, wouldn't I? So it's nice to know it's coming and hopefully, you know, push towards 350 by the end of the season. So that's my ambition.
REACTION | Tom Rothery Post Match Interview| Needham Market v Long Melford| 08.10.2024 |
Assistant Manager Tom Rothery reflects on our Suffolk Premier Cup win.
DK: You must be very pleased?
TR: Yeah, really pleased. Especially in the first half, we moved the ball really well. Obviously a difficult night for Long Melford, but we've played them the last two years and haven't done that to them, so pleasing for us.
It just carries on a bit of momentum from Saturday, so yeah, pleased.
DK: Eight goalscorers as well, not often that happens.
TR: No, and I think, again, off the back of the way we've started the season, you know, it never hurts to hit the back of the net, does it? So, yeah, no, that's good.
DK: Another positive? Clinical in all senses.
TR: Yeah, we could have had more. Yeah, I thought first half we were really clinical, second half, I think at times, maybe chose the wrong option when it's clinical, but yeah, you know, sounds a bit nitpicky, but yeah, we said at half-time, even though it was 7-0, we wanted to carry on and try and do the right things and carry on and, like I said, build momentum ready for Saturday because obviously we know Saturday is going to be a tougher challenge, but it's just important while we can we keep building momentum and trying to get confidence in the team and, you know, winning games is a good habit, as simple as that.
DK: Yeah, and like you say, keeping on that front foot, the momentum of that alone will stick with you if you keep doing that.
TR: Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, as much as you can win these games, like I said, you can win them and you can get bad habits off the back of winning them, so that can then affect the game after, can't it? So, yeah, like I said, from our point of view, start of the night, we said we wanted us to be clinical, wanted us to be ruthless and wanted us to build on what we'd done on Saturday because arguably Saturday, not just because of the scoreline, but actually performance, I thought, was one of our best ones of the season so far and closer to what we were doing last season.
So, you know, that's good and we have built on it, you know, levels and all the rest of it, but it's still, like I said, winning games is a good habit. And I think the way you win as well, most of the time tonight, we've done the right thing, so that's pleasing. It's been tough after Oxford, off the back of Oxford and St Albans, it was tough, you know, and like we said right at the start of the season, we said to the players, mentality is going to be huge this season. We are going to get more knocks, potentially, than we've had ever before, you know, we're going to have times where we doubt ourselves, question ourselves and it's important that when we do that, we just stick together, believe in what we're doing and keep doing the right things. And I think, you know, we've done that the last two games and that is important. We're going to get more knocks this season, but if we stick together and do the right things, we'll come out the other side and we'll be better for it. And I think that will happen, I really do genuinely believe that.
DK: Chorley, away at the weekend, every game of the season is going to be tough, but it's important that we try and keep going what we've been doing.
TR: Yeah, every game is tough at Step 2, we knew that at the start of the season, but again, also, every game, everyone's got a chance of winning it. I think the league is really close, you can see that now. You know, we win Saturday we're six points off play-offs, so you win three or four games, you can be right up there, you lose three or four games, you can be right down there. So, you know, we've just got to keep trying to build momentum, take the punches when they come on the chin and look to move on and improve from that. And that's what we're trying to do. That's what we keep telling the players and I do think the players are taking that on board and are starting to now, we're starting to see some of the rewards off the back of that, not just tonight, but like I said, Saturday as well. We're starting to see, you know, more from the players, what we expect really, I think, and that's not because they weren't trying previously. It's just, like I said, you know, we took a few punches on the nose and maybe struggled to deal with them at times and I do start to believe that we're starting to come out the other side of that, but not just because of tonight's result, but just what we're seeing in training and then what we're seeing in the game.
DK: Other than the result and keeping on the front foot, what else pleased you most tonight?
TR: Some of the players' performances, you know, some of the players really showed their standards, really played well within the game, you know, which is important. I thought Ollie had another good game, which is important for him, you know, a bit like the team, he's trying to build momentum, get a start in place and we're starting to see Ollie Fraser really come to where we believe he can get to and we're starting to see some real positives out of Ollie, so that's definitely pleasing. I thought Ben Hunter was really good tonight and a lot of the stuff that we work on in training, you know, I can't remember what goal it was, but Hunts sort of reversed passed into central areas, we work on that at training all the time, about playing central rather than taking the easy option and going out wide and just some of the combinations that we've seen today. Hammo stepped in, obviously played right back today, but stepped into midfield and picked up the ball and found some nice spaces. I thought Tev showed quality on the ball a lot. Seth's come on, scored a goal, which certainly won't hurt him. Jamie's got a goal, do you know what I mean? So there's lots of pleasing things really, you know, if we've been over a critical, we've given them a couple of little opportunities on the break, which is a bit frustrating if we're being really honest, but other than that, there weren't too many negatives.
