Manager: I can’t thank them enough

“I would imagine everybody is sick to death of me talking about level of performance, talking about individuals.

“I think today shows where we are as a group – a long way off where we need to be.

“I think it shows when we’re putting young Fitzy [Aran FItzpatrick] on to make his debut, young Anton [Dudik] on to try and go and effect a game.

“I think it’s glaringly obvious that there needs to be a huge turnaround in the group, there will be a turnaround in the group.

“If I’m really honest, the big positive that I’m going to take out of today and I’ll take through the summer is what the supporters did at the end of the game.

“For them to stay in numbers and applaud the players, I didn’t see one single person giving the players stick or giving me stick and you know what, we probably deserved it.

“All I can say is a massive thank you to every single one of them who stayed, that is massively appreciated.

“All I can hope is that when we come back for next season, we’re in a much better position than we are as I stand here today.”

Speaking on the goals we conceded, Simmo said: “All of them things we talked about, being aggressive and dominating first contacts. This is not just today, this is all season, working hard to stop crosses, clearing your lines, they’re both really poor goals.

“Even the third goal, you have to compete, you’ve got to head it and we haven’t done it.

“Hugely disappointing and as I say, I’m quite sure everyone is sick to death of it.

“This has easily been the toughest season I’ve ever had to do in my whole time since 1982.

“This has been a real challenge with all of the things that have been thrown at us, all of the things that we’ve tried to deal with.

“My overriding thought of today is just a thank you to the supporters for staying behind and applauding us off, when it would’ve been easier to do something else.”

After returning to the starting line-up, Alfie McCalmont got on the scoresheet in the first-half.

“I thought Alfie did well in terms of how he tried to play, he tried to pass the ball, really good finish.

“I thought there were a few out there who worked tirelessly trying to affect the game, but unfortunately we were a long way off it.”

On 85 minutes, Aran Fitzpatrick replaced Jack Armer to make his first team debut.

“It’s maybe a bit unfair at 3-1 down, but I just thought, ‘let’s get him on there’ and I thought he showed some real energy, showed some good little bits of work with his feet.

“It was a tough one for Anton, but hopefully they’ll benefit from that.”

Midway through the second-half, Sam Lavelle had to exit the action due to injury.

The gaffer provided the following update on injuries: “He got a whack on his ankle and he said it was too sore to carry on.

“Georgie we brought off, we’re trying to protect him. Although we want to try and get results now, it’s about preparing for next season.

“That’s why I didn’t put Dylan McGeouch on the bench, he’s only done one day of training.

“It’s important that we keep everybody fit to make sure that they’re available for the start of pre-season.”

Speaking on Josh Kayode’s absence from the matchday squad, Paul stated: “I can’t really say a lot about that one, I got a phone call at 9:30 this morning to say that he’s ruled himself out of the game and I can’t really go into anymore than that.”

Finally, Simmo praised the Blues’ faithful once again.

“The fans have been incredible, I can’t thank them enough.

“I don’t think we can do enough to thank them, but they have stuck with us through some really tough times on the pitch.

“I hope that they understand that we’re so disappointed, we’re as disappointed as them, I’m as disappointed as them.

“We have a massive job on our hands, the recruitment team have got a massive job on their hands and we’ve got to make sure that we come back next season with a stronger squad physically and mentally, ready to go and roll their sleeves up and do everything they can to put this season to bed.”

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