Alton manager Kevin Adair post-Camberley Town
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00:00Kevin, first home league game and deserved win against Camberley, 1-0 tonight. Thoughts on the performance?
00:07Yeah, good three points, clean sheet. First home league game of the season, it's always good to win.
00:13Not many people walk away and say they've seen a great game of football, but sometimes you've just got to get the result and that's what we've done tonight.
00:20Felt like the second half really took control and dominated. What was the message at half-time?
00:28Camberley had the Sim bin on half-time.
00:31Yeah, so they came out and started with 10, which obviously gave us a chance to be a little bit braver and move one of the midfielders further forward.
00:39Doing that, obviously we gained the ball higher up the pitch, which we didn't do in the first half.
00:44We sort of gained a couple of chances then and probably should have scored one and then OT smashes one.
00:50He's been really good for us in the last three or four games and a new role for him.
00:55Once we got that, I think we were a bit more comfortable. We could try the game for a little bit.
01:00Then I think they changed the way they played. They went three at the back, moved another one forward, went a little bit longer.
01:07They'd spent most of the game smashing our balls out on the ground to slow it down at nil-nil.
01:11Then they want to speed the game up and we're under pressure.
01:14We are a side when there's a ball that bounces around a little bit, all my heart is in my mouth sometimes.
01:19It's like someone just go for it and smash it out the ground like they've been doing to us.
01:23To be honest, after a 10-minute period, I think then we controlled the game again.
01:27Then Adam Pointer obviously looked like after 60 minutes he'd run his race and then for 25 minutes he'd run a maggot again.
01:34Just got on the ball and stretched them a little bit. We were pretty good.
01:38I think, to be fair, disciplined performance, clean sheet and happy to just get the first three points.
01:45Camberley pumped some long balls in but they didn't really create anything, did they?
01:50No, in the two centre-halves we've got big strong lads that win most things in the air.
01:55Full-backs tuck in and get round and they cover.
01:59We defend well and we don't often get broken down other than something that bounces, ricochets or whatever or we switch off.
02:08They're the goals we conceded and we've got to try and eradicate that.
02:11To be fair, if you look at a scrappy game like that, we haven't made a mistake today.
02:16I've got to see that as a positive as well.
02:18Obviously Adam got his second win and caused problems.
02:21Liam Marshall off the bench made a good impact there?
02:24There's no doubt in that lads. He's just got to get the best out of him and what we do because he's unplayable at times.
02:31But he's just got to learn the game in certain things because the level he's come from to the level he's playing at now,
02:38the game is different and there's a little bit more responsibility in what he's got to do sometimes.
02:42To be fair, he's picked it up a lot quicker this season than we thought he would.
02:48If we can just keep working on him and getting little bits of his game a little bit better,
02:54then unfortunately he probably won't be with us very long.
02:58But that's one of them things.
03:00Again, if we can give someone a platform to move up higher, that's brilliant.
03:03But if he can do things for us through this season and help us achieve what we want to, then brilliant.
03:08And Joe Goddard, another youngster, looked very comfortable out there at left back.
03:12It's two 17-year-olds in the side again today.
03:15I said in my report last week about how kids seem to be getting younger, but I think it's the fact that I'm getting older.
03:24But it is promising. It's good for the club.
03:27It shows that we're creating a pathway for people to come and play their football here and it's a good place to play.
03:33If we can give them the opportunity to get better, learn the game and move them on, then we've done our job.
03:39But at the same time, they could be the people that push us on a little bit as well.
03:43That's four points out of six. Good, solid start really now.
03:47It's disappointing to exit the FA Cup in the way we did, but there's reasons why that might have happened.
03:54We've just got to move on and do the things that matter so we can class them as two more pre-season games for us.
04:01We put the side together, again the squad together pretty late.
04:04We lost 13, brought in 10 new faces. I think we've had 11 debuts now after four games.
04:11Four points after Tadley away and Camberley at home, a team that we couldn't break down and beat at their place last season.
04:19And Tadley obviously picked us to the play-offs last year.
04:22You'd say it was a tough start and four points is good.
04:25And a new group as well, which can sometimes cause a slow start if new players are coming in.
04:30So that's obviously a bonus, isn't it?
04:32Yeah, for sure. It is a new group, but they have clicked together quicker than what they normally do.
04:38But I've got to give them credit. I think they're a better group than we've had at this stage of any season so far in terms of quality.
04:45It normally takes a little bit longer for us to find the players of this quality.
04:49So we've been able to work with them a little bit longer than what we normally do.
04:53And it shows. There's some really technically good players.
04:56And obviously with the coaching set-up that we've got, we've got the opportunity to go and make them better and the team better.
05:02Thoughts now on Jersey on Saturday? Obviously a long trip that one.
05:06Usually a good crowd there and usually a good sort of occasion.
05:08Yeah, it's a big game obviously going there.
05:11Their aspirations are to get promoted as they are every year.
05:15It'll be a tough game. It's a tough game for us to have because obviously we've played some tough games already.
05:20Looking at going out there with the squad that we've got, freshening it up a little bit.
05:26It's not always an option because you have to book the flights ten days ago.
05:30It's really difficult to juggle, but we'll be going there and trying to get a positive result, that's for sure.