Time To Get Serious Says Groves!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 23/07/2002

BACK from Scandinavia today, Paul Groves said it was time to get serious again. "I said that the results aren't important, but at some point that mentality has to change.

That approach to the results has to change now that we are back in England playing sides who are more like those we'll face at the start of the season.

In an interview with the Grimsby Telegraph he said: "We need to start to approach games with that winning mentality combined with that competitive edge that we need when we really get started."

"We played some good stuff in the first half and we got in behind them a couple of times and had one or two efforts before we got a goal. The goal was finished well and very well worked. It was a poor time to concede but there was nothing Danny (Coyne) could do about it. He had no chance."

"We started the second half reasonably well, but once the sending off happened we seemed to lose our way and struggled even with a numerical advantage. We collapsed. That's hard to accept and we had a mad spell in that second half that cost us two goals and in it we went from doing well, to playing very poorly. That's disappointing."

"From a fitness point of view it has been good; the facilities and the trip in general has been good. It's allowed us to play some games and all the lads have had the same amount of time under their belt. We've been able to give them ideas and methods and from that point of view it's been positive.

"People will still look at the results, whether they are pre-season games or not, and they have obviously put a dampener on the tour. It's hard to accept because in the games we have looked short in fitness, but that has come. We have lacked a bit of a threat on goal but we were starting to do well in the first half last night."

Ford pulled a thigh muscle which may affect his talks with Wolves and Groves added: "It looks like he's pulled his thigh and it's a very similar sort of injury to the one he got at the end of last season. That could be something long term, maybe four to six weeks, but until it settles down we won't know. I will speak to his agent when we get back and see what the situation is."

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