Speaking to Valley Pass after the 4-1 loss to Aston Villa in the final pre-season game of the summer, Lee Bowyer gave his thoughts on the game, Chuks Aneke and Deji Oshilaja and looked ahead to the opening Championship game of the season against Blackburn Rovers...
On the game against Aston Villa...
"I think there were pros and cons! I’ll get the negatives out of the way first; I think that we made mistakes, it was a good learning curve for me and for the players. We now realise that we’ve gone up a division. They’re not going to play against a side like that every week, I can assure them that.
"The difference is that they punish you, I don’t think that they created a lot of chances, we gave them three out of the four [goals] I think. I say that we gave it to them, they still had to finish it off and the way that they did was the difference.
"We broke on them a few times but they was more clinical than us. Like I said, there was a lot of positives for me. I think that Chuks [Aneke] did well, Lyle [Taylor] was better today, this was the best that I’ve seen him all pre-season. I think we moved the ball well at times, we looked solid at times but, again, just that one mistake, that one loose pass is what cost us. and for me it was a good school day for myself and for the players."
On Chuks Aneke's injury…
"I don’t know [about the potential injury], he felt his hamstring. I’m hoping that it’s the same as Gillingham, that it’s just a little twinge and a little bit of cramp, that’s what I’m hoping for. I won’t know, probably, until Monday, now he’ll have to go for a scan I guess, to see what the outcome is."
On Deji Oshilaja…
"He was good, strong, obviously he has to get used to the players, he’s only been here a few days so he’s done well. I tried him in front of the back four early on, he did okay physically.
"Then we went to the three at the back and I thought we looked a bit better, I thought we passed it better and we kept the ball better. So I thought that Deji did okay, it's his first game and he’s not really trained much and I thought he could be a good addition to the squad. He’s a good solid player and he wants to win and that’s the type of people that we want to bring in."
On preparing for Blackburn…
"Firstly, we’ll be trying to bring in signings, that’s the first thing. But we’ve got a full week now of training and preparing.
"It’s good, we’ll work hard. I think Blackburn will be a good test for us. They finished around the middle of the table last year, so it will be a real good test to see where we are. So, hopefully, we can bring in a couple more additions to make us that little bit stronger, but we’ll be okay. It’s a long season."
Valley Pass subscribers can watch Bowyer's full post-match interview. Valley Pass costs just £6.50 per month or £60 for the year and you can sign-up by clicking here.