Don’t mention the Walsall: How to wind up Leeds boss

WALSALL. Just the merest mention of the Midlands club’s name is enough to wipe the smile off Brian McDermott’s face.
Steve MorisonSteve Morison
Steve Morison

United were so poor in last month’s friendly at the Bescot Stadium that their manager admitted in the aftermath to finding it hard to glean so much as one positive.

Now, however, with the new Championship season about to get under way, McDermott wants his players to use that undoubted low of pre-season as inspiration for the challenges that lay ahead.

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He said: “One of the joys I have as a football manager is being able to go to the fans at the end of a game away from home and clap them after a good result.

“On the flipside, one of the things I do not like is doing so when we have lost. And if we have not even played well, I feel embarrassed. That was how I felt at Walsall, where we just didn’t perform as a group.

“You have to go to the fans because you respect that they have turned up. They have come to watch us, so that is the least they deserve. But when you haven’t performed the feeling is not good.

“We don’t want too many of those this season. Walsall could be an important marker in the sand. It is not just me, it was the players and the coaching staff. The fans will have felt the same, I am sure.

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“We are all in this together. And if we say we are in this together then we have to be in it together when things aren’t going so well. Not just when things are good. We win together, we lose together.”

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