Ablett: ‘Sorry For The Performance’

Gary Ablett has thanked the County fans for their support during the past twelve months of hell at Edgeley Park for everyone concerned, and apologised for the 5-0 defeat at Millwall on Saturday.

County completely self-destructed at The New Den, sticking two own goals past Owain fon Williams and gifting The Lions all five of their goals – which takes the promotion-chasing outfit to within one goal of an automatic promotion spot.

And Ablett has apologised to the 270 or so County fans who made the trek down to the country’s capital for the dire showing, although he maintained his belief that ‘the scoreline flattered Millwall’.

‘We’ve had fantastic support again from the couple of hundred fans who have come down and I’d like to thank them and apologise at the same time for the lack of quality in the performance.’

‘I honestly think the scoreline flattered them. I thought we were culpable for all five goals once again.

‘How are you supposed to compete in games when you gift teams five goals like that?

‘I’m sure half our lads thought we were wearing blue today because we passed it to them that many times.

‘There are no excuses. None.’

And while the 44-year-old knows that County are playing for pride in the remaining eight fixtures, he says he wants ‘full commitment and no heads looking down’ from his squad.

‘We’ve told the players that they’ve got to be brave and they’ve got to stand up and be counted and not enough of them did today.’

‘It’s difficult to go in the dressing room and say the same things because at the moment it’s falling on deaf ears.’

‘There are still eight games to go and it’s going to be tough unless we get some confidence and get some belief but it’s difficult to see where that’s coming from at the moment.’

‘I’m very wary of fact that there’s no positive news surrounding any aspect of the club. Whether that has an affect on the players, I don’t know. It certainly has an effect on me at times.’