“Feeling sorry for ourselves isn’t the solution." - Holland

3:44pm Wednesday 8th October 2008

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BOSS Steve Holland felt for the players after Wembley dreams ended on Monday night.

Chris Shuker’s 86th-minute winner dumped struggling Crewe out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

“We don’t get paid to feel sorry for ourselves."

Steve Holland

Holland felt they deserved more after an improved first-half display.

“Feeling sorry for ourselves isn’t the solution,” he said.

“We don’t get paid to feel sorry for ourselves.

“I was annoyed last weekend as we didn’t play well against Northampton.

“We let the players know that in no uncertain terms. We were annoyed about Saturday.

“But that wasn’t the case tonight,”

“I’m just frustrated and disappointed for the players as they have put a lot into the game.

“In the first-half they outplayed a decent Tranmere side and they didn’t deserve to lose.

“We passed the ball a lot better and all the forwards looked dangerous.

“We were getting a lot of joy with Carrington making it an extra man in midfield.

“Steve Schumacher was linking the play well and passing the ball.

“My only criticism was with the final delivery on occasions but we could still have gone in at half-time a couple of goals up.

“Calvin had an early chance which he hit straight at the keeper.

“Pope cracked a shot that hit the post and Dennis had a header cleared off the line.

“Those were the best chances of the game.”

Holland admitted things were different after the break.

“We knew they would come out and pressurise us more in the second-half,” he added.

“They had a scramble inside our box early on and began hitting the ball into our box more.

“I thought we’d weathered their pressure in the second-half and got our game going again.

“We were making substitutions for the penalties with five minutes to go and then their lad hit a shot from outside the box and it flew in the opposite direction and landed in the net.

“That sums up our luck a bit.”