Burton Coach Andy Garner's pre-match thoughts: "No disrespect to Barnsley but we need to be beating Barnsley. There are better teams in this division that are going to be beating us, that's for sure, so we need to be picking up points against these sorts of teams."
Thats up there with "Im not a racist but ..." If thats not disrespectful I am not sure what is. Of course if he had said Barnsley are one of our rivals for the relegation spots at the moment so its important we get points from them it would have sounded a lot less Wednesday
To be fair, while it could have been phrased differently, I'd say much the same thing about any of our fellow bottom third teams. If your aim is survival then that's where you need to be picking up points. I don't think this is "teams like Barnsley" in the same way as it would be if it came from Wednesday or Villa - doubt he'd have said it if we were knocking on the door of the top 6.
How refreshing to see someone in a coaching position being so brutally honest. How often in press conferences people tow the line by always giving too much respect to their opponents. You don't have to watch a pre match press conference to know that the person interviewed will say it's going to be a tough game for example. Be quite nice from time to time for Hecky to be the same. Like before Wednesday if he'd said they are going through a tough time with results, Carlos is under pressure, no better time to play them etc it would have been funny and all said would have been true.
We still do it now. In fact, just this lunch time I mentioned to a friend that we've got to be looking at three points against "teams like Burton and Birmingham."
I'm not sure we said that about clubs clearly bigger and, on the evidence so far, better than our own on the field.
"No disrespect to Burton... and their 3000 fans... and their Conference North-standard stadium with its dangerous, 1970s throwback of a terrace reminiscent of Altrincham, but we need to be putting these sorts of teams in their place. I mean, their transfer record was £20,000 until recently. No disrespect to Burton. At all. No disrespect."
To be fair, their fans are much more respectful on the their forum. They see it as a tough game just as we do. Their coach probably just means teams around them at the bottom. . . . . . . . . . I'd still show it to the players though!
He's right what he's saying but the way it's been worded doesn't feel right. Got a 0-0 feel about it again
He's just saying it as it is.. if you finish the season below Barnsley (at present) there's an awfully good chance that you'll be going down.. Nowt wrong wi that..
Jesus even Burton are giving the big un. I went to Burton last season we took 1800 fans and the total attendance was less than 5000 the facilities were so poor the que for a piss at half time was unreal 2 toilets between 1800 away fans. Far that reason no disrespect we must be beating teams like Burton confrance team in championship.
Different managers have different strategies to motivate players. Truth is, it will be a hard match, but one we can't afford to lose. We are one of 7-8 teams that could go down, as they are. Mind games are what management is about. No point reading anything in that stuff. Hecky won't get drawn on stuff like that I reckon. He likes to keep players focused on their roles & judges them on that basis.
To be fair, if I was at Burton, I'd be targetting our game as a must win as well. Considering they seem less able to mix it this term and the naive notion that Burton couldn't compete has been put to bed, they're simply not getting the same results. They will look at us in the way I look at Brentford, Millwall or Bolton. Winnable. Throw Birmingham into that too. Actually, our next two games are huge in my opinion. Both very winnable, and whilst losing or drawing both wouldn't be disasterous, it would be a real blow consdiering the tough matches ahead in November and December.