No excuses, we need a quick reaction says Humphreys (From The Northern Echo)

No excuses, we need a quick reaction says Humphreys

9:41am Monday 18th January 2010 in

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RITCHIE Humphreys admitted there was no excuses for Hartlepool United’s humbling at the hands of MK Dons.

Pools were whacked 5-0 in front of their own fans, leaving captain Humphreys and his team-mates stunned.

And, after the most lacklustre of displays, Pools have to quickly regroup for tomorrow’s game at promotionchasing Charlton.

“It all went terribly wrong for us,’’ he reflected. “A poor result, a poor display. Every single player has to hold their hands up and there will be criticism which we have to take – the players know that.

“Sometimes you get these results and you cannot brush it under the carpet.

“The crowd gave us some harsh words and we deserved those harsh words. Simple things didn’t happen, things like passing and controlling and that’s down to us.

“We go one behind, two behind and it’s up to us to come back and get a foothold back in the game. To concede five at home is really poor and at the other end we didn’t trouble them at all.’’ And Humphreys, who captained the side in the absence of flu victim Sam Collins admitted: “We have to regain the trust of the fans and we have two games this week to do that. By no means can we brush this under the carpet.

It was very poor.

“It’s a tough week for us, but we cannot sit and sulk about it. You can’t go home and forget about it. No-one will just think it’s another game, everyone will be hurting, they are all that sort of lads.

“We all have disappointing games, but the manner in which we lost this game isn’t acceptable.

“No-one can sit back and defend themselves. You need everyone working and performing at a high level to get results in this division.

“In terms of getting back to being solid and not conceding is about regrouping, getting together, speaking a few home truths and getting back together.

“The DVD will be there to watch and we are all as guilty as anyone. There are no positive from this, you have to be realistic. Being honest, we were really poor.’’ While Pools have only trained once on grass in almost a month, Humpheys refused to use that as mitigating circumstances.

“It’s not down to not being able to train, all teams in the country have been in the same boat,’’ he said. “It’s about going out and putting on a performance and we didn’t do that.

“There’s enough experienced lads in the squad.

“I’ve had disappointing days and this is at the top of the list.’