Centre-half James Wilson has dismissed the suggestion that Town’s disrupted build-up ahead of Tuesday’s game at Doncaster Rovers was a factor in the Blues falling to a 4-1 defeat, their first League One loss of the season.
After striker Kayden Jackson had tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend, the whole squad were tested on Monday morning with training scaled down as a result of concerns that other players might also have contracted the virus.
However, Wilson says that had nothing to do with the Blues losing to Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium last night.
"To be honest, you can’t make that an excuse,” he insisted. "We don’t usually do a lot before games anyway. We did less than normal, we couldn’t contact train, so we couldn’t do the usual sharp stuff but apart from that we did everything properly.
"We did everything the right way, that’s no excuse. I don’t think it had an impact, although I’d love to say yes.”
Given the current situation with the pandemic, the 31-year-old says the same circumstances could happen again ahead of another game.
"I think it’s going to happen,” he said. "I think the way it’s going, it’s going to happen even more in the next couple of months at least, could be for the whole season, you don’t know. Hopefully it doesn’t but I can see it happening again.”
No one other than Jackson tested positive which the Welshman says is a tribute to the measures which have been put in place at Playford Road since the squad returned for pre-season training.
"I think so, we’re not in the building, we’re in the dome every morning,” he said. "We do our videos in there apart from one another.
"We do our pre-hab in there not in the gym, we’re not in the building at all. We don’t eat there, we eat at home, so it’s strange.
"It’s tough because a lot of the boys like staying in the afternoons and doing extra but we just can’t do it at the moment. It’s frustrating but it’s nothing to compared to a lot of people, so it’s fine.”
Regarding Jackson, who is required to isolate for for 10 to 14 days, Wilson said: "He’s fine, I spoke to him today [Tuesday].
"He was poorly for a couple of days and showing symptoms but he’s completely fine and his family are fine as well, he’s at home with them.
"He lives round the corner from me so I just made sure he had everything he needed, it’s completely fine, which is good.”
Reflecting on the Doncaster result, he said: "It was, really tough, really frustrating. We started the game really well. Even after the goal we scored, I thought we were playing really good football again, but a couple of goals really took the sting out of us. In the second half I think we tried to force things a bit and got punished.”
Why did the performance drift, was complacency a factor? I don’t know if it was complacency. Maybe, yes. We’ve had everything our own way really this season. Maybe it was a bit of that, maybe we need to work on that for the weekend.”
Town had only conceded twice in the league prior to shipping four last night, much to the centre-half’s annoyance.
"That’s really frustrating,” he admitted. "But the way we play we’re going to concede goals every now and then.
"Obviously we don’t want to concede as many as we did tonight and hopefully we can work on a few things for the weekend.”
The fourth goal came from an error when passing the ball out from the back, which he says will happen on occasion and Town played themselves into trouble on one or two other occasions at the Keepmoat.
"It didn’t [quite work out tonight] and there are going to be times when it doesn’t,” he continued.
"There are going to be mistakes made, no one’s perfect, but we’ve got to minimise the mistakes to one or two a game, tonight I think we made seven or eight. It’s frustrating but everyone’s been doing really well, we’ve just got to stick with it.”
But he says no one in the dressing room has been assigning blame to individuals: "Definitely not, no one’s been pointing a finger in there, it’s a team game and everyone’s made mistakes tonight, so it’s no individual so we’ve just got to get on with it.”
He added: "We’re seven games in, it’s really early days with so many games, it’s Saturday-Tuesday now for the next couple of weeks and then again in the month after. We’ve got to really stick to our guns. If we stick to the way we’re playing we’ll get better and better.”
Wilson has started every League One game this season and has been pleased with his own form and his partnership with Toto Nsiala.
"Really happy, obviously tonight it doesn’t feel great, but I’m really happy personally,” he said.
"[The partnership’s] really good, we’re both quite athletic so I think it works quite well. The gaffer wants us to play a really high line so that works in our favour.”
The impressive start to the season has seen Wilson and Nsiala keep Luke Woolfenden and Arsenal loanee Mark McGuinness out of the side, young players who the former Sheffield United and Lincoln man rates very highly.
"They’re really good, so we need to keep getting results otherwise they’ll be in,” he said. "They’re champing at the bit to get in, so hopefully we can get a win on Saturday.”
He says it’s important to bounce back against the Imps at Sincil Bank on Saturday: "Definitely, and it’s a big game. I think they’re third after tonight so it’s a big game.”
Wilson was with Lincoln prior to joining the Blues and has previously admitted it was a frustrating spell for him but he says the game isn’t a particularly special one from his perspective.
"Not really, to be honest,” he reflected. "It’s long gone in my brain, that place! No, I look forward to it, there are a few people I still know there, so hopefully we can get the result.”
Looking at the current position, he says there’s an awful lot of football still to be played this season.
"There’s loads,” he said. "There are 39 games left so there are loads and we’ve got to take the rough with the smooth a little bit, obviously not the extent of tonight but keep going.”
And he believes that the Blues, who dropped from first to second following last night’s defeat, have enough to stay among the challengers even with a number of senior players out injured.
"One hundred per cent,” he insisted. "I think we’ve got five or six injured, we’ve got loads coming back, so when they’re back, the squad’s going to be even stronger, especially going into Christmas
"I think they’re all coming back by then or just after the New Year, so the second half of the season is just as important as the start. We’ve got to stick to our guns and keep playing the way we’re playing.”