Thursday 4 July 2013

Richie reflects on Dinamo defeat

Manager Richie Burke today reflected on last night's useful run out against Dinamo Bucuresti in Woodlesford.

The game resulted in a second successive defeat, but while the three goal margin was similar to Sunday's game against Steaua, the game was a much closer affair.

"Dinamo weren't as good a side as Steaua and I thought we competed very well throughout," said Richie.

"Obviously I'm not pleased with the result but I thought 3-0 really flattered them based on how the game played out.

"One disappointment was that the goals we conceded were our own mistakes rather than anything else. As I said  to the team, I don't really mind if an opposition team earns a goal with a great sequence of play but the goals we've been conceding have been a bit cheap and we've talked about that.

"I'm a little concerned about our quality in front of goal too, but I'm mindful that we're only twelve days into pre-season and in the first couple of games we've only been giving players a half each to accrue some fitness.

"We aren't pushing the panic button by any means, but we are looking to get more movement from our front players and tweaking our system to get more penetration from midfield. That worked well in the first half against Dinamo but not so much in the second half."

Based at Leigh Sports Village, this week's training camp has been useful in terms of team bonding and getting added time on the training field.

The trip comes to an end tomorrow and the squad will head back north with a hard but productive week behind them.

"It's been very positive down here," added Richie, "we're getting valuable work done on the training ground and using the matches here as an extension of that.

"For us, it's all about progressing towards that opening competitive game against Berwick and avoiding the situation that happened to us at Annan last year."

The third and final match of the camp takes place this afternoon when we face Otelul Galati, a side which finished mid-table in last year's Romanian top division.