Boss Paul Lambert felt his side could have scored five or six goals in the first half of their 4-1 victory over Accrington Stanley and again insisted it’s players that win matches not systems as well as commenting on owner Marcus Evans’s programme notes on the club’s footballing style going forward and stating that he believes there are those that want Town to fail.

“The first half I thought was excellent, really good, it could have been five or six. The first half probably got us the win,” Lambert said.

What was different from previous games? “Even the games we’ve lost or drawn, we’ve had most of the game, most of the ball, most of the game, most of the chances.

“It was just the intensity I thought, that’s going to happen because they’re not used to playing like that every single week. A good win.”

He added: “We’ve dominated games before without getting the break. As I said the other day, we had 73 penalty box entries against Bristol Rovers. Today we have probably had the same in the first half, I’ve not seen the stats, but we were clinical. That was the difference.

“We played a different way. As I said before, it’s a lot of nonsense about systems, a lot of nonsense, it’s about players.

“It’s nonsense, absolute bollocks it is. Bollocks, it really is. You’ve just got to get that out of your head, systems don’t win you games, players do. We work on it for one week and we win 4-1.

“[We worked] on a different way of playing, it’s amazing. The players were great, really, really good.”

Town’s overlapping centre-halves, the most notable change from previous games which he says was worked on for “a couple of days” this week, drew comparisons with Sheffield United’s current approach with Lambert a fan of the Blades having watched them last Sunday in their FA Cup tie against AFC Fylde, who are currently sixth in the Premier League.

“If we get anywhere near Sheffield United, we’re doing alright. [The centre-halves created a lot of opportunities to score goals], Luke Woolfenden did great for the first one [Chambers put the ball] in for Judgey for the third one.”

Asked whether that had any relation to Evans’s statement about the club playing “technical” football, he said: “Marcus wants us to play silky football, is that what he wants, and then we lose games? Is that what he wants?”

Might Evans take some credit for coming up with the system? “Marcus came up with that system? The next game Marcus can sit here, let me and Marcus swap roles, I’ll take that any day of the week. I’ll take all the yachts, I’ll take all the planes, I’ll take all the holidays. I’ll let him sit here and he can do what I do.

“Listen, I guarantee if the football club gets promoted and we’re not playing great football, he’ll be the first one to jump over the moon.

“You’ve got to try and win. Play silky, silky, silky, silky - lose. The game’s about winning football. What do we play football for? What do we play professional sport for?”

Lambert was reminded of NFL coach Vince Lombardi’s famous quote, 'If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?’.

“Absolutely, take away the two goals,” he said. “You’ve got to win. Winning is the thing, I was brought up in an era when I had to win, and thank God I won trophies coming out of my ears.

“I won the biggest things in Europe, I won the biggest titles. I know what it is to win. But I can look back and I’ll see a lot of trophies.”

Asked why he hadn’t come in to his press conference bouncing after what was an important victory, Lambert responded: “I think people want us to fail, without a doubt. The football club is not used to winning all the time, ‘We have to win, we have to win, we have to win’.

“The guys aren’t used to it, the guys are young guys, some are experienced guys but it’s the first time in a long while the pressure’s on to try and do something.

“Two different pressures winning a title and staying in a division. Two totally different things.”

"Quizzed on who he believes want Town to fail, he said: “I know there are people who want us to fail, I don’t need no names, I know people want us to fail.”

Did he use that as a motivating factor today? “No, I’ve got my own feelings and I’ve got my own mind on it. I’m absolutely delighted the lads won, they played brilliant football, we looked really, really good, the way we played.

“And I’m happy with the support, it’s unbelievable, 18,000 against Accrington, the German lads coming over, absolutely brilliant. The football club as I said before is in a really, really good place, a really good place.”

Town were unchanged for successive league games for the first time this season and Lambert says it’s down to players to keep their shirts.

“Try and keep it, yes,” he added. “OK, barring one or two little knocks, we have to wait and see. We have another game Tuesday. We’re three points off the top with a game in hand, it’s a bloody good position we’re in.”

Questioned on whether it’s now a case of getting some momentum going having ended the winless run, he added: “I don’t want to play silky football all the time and lose or draw, I don’t want it. I’ve not been brought up that way. This is not my mantra, to play great, lovely football without having something at the end of it.

“You have to win. The winning is the main aspect of any professional sport. That quote is a brilliant quote, ‘why keep the score?’.

“You try and do the best you can to win, regardless of how you do it, and that’s professional sport.”

Might Evans’s comments about style be unhelpful that being the case? “Marcus has been brilliant, I’ve always said that, I’ve said that from day one that Marcus has been great. If Marcus has said that or not, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Are the two on the same page? “No, I can’t stand him and he can’t stand me!” he joked. “Of course, I get on well with him, I get on well with him, I fight with him, he fights with me.

“I say, ‘No, that’s not good enough’, he says, ‘That’s all I can do’. No problem, we meet in the middle, we try and do the same thing.

“He’s a good guy, he’s a good chairman [sic] to work under, will I agree with everything he says? No. Will he agree with me? No.

“He’s the one that holds the big thing at this club. He can do what he wants, hire, fire, employ, get rid of people. He can do what he wants with it. It’s his club, it’s his money, you have to respect what he wants to do.”

Reflecting on the positive result and performance, he added: “I think it’s brilliant, even the games we drew and we lost a couple here and there, which I said was always going to happen.

“But, my God, a couple of defeats here and you think the world’s caved in, it’s incredible. People will think that that’s fine, that’s why the guys deserve so much credit for today, because the way they played and handled everything that was coming.

“Accrington were in really good form, John’s done really well there and we knew it would be a hard game but the actual level we played today was very, very good.”

Photo: TWTD

dirtydingusmagee added 22:13 - Jan 11 its not about systems , but we played differently today and we won , Paul Lambert aka ,,The Riddler''. lol.
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AlanG296 added 22:31 - Jan 11 Lambert goes on about his success as a player because it's a long while since his brief success as a manager. Failed in his last 4 jobs and he knows we are his last chance to restore his credibility as a manager. I hope he overcomes his insecurity, has more belief in his players, e.g. trusting them to play more than one game a week, and that he us a success for us, because he can only be a success if ITFC are a success.

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BurleysGloryDays added 23:02 - Jan 11 Lambo lashing out as he's pissed off. 95% of fans don't deserve it as they're right behind him even on a bad run. But it's definitely true that a minority squadron of fans on here alone are not behind him, or Evans, and he's telling them to piss off. As am I! To all you negative, dull, whining fans... hear that loud and clear! COYB! Come on Lambo! As One!
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rugbytomc added 23:02 - Jan 11 An awful lot of “ballacks” coming out of both Lambert and Evans. I'm so tired of it I just don't care anymore as long as we go up. Let them carry on pretending to be Mourinho and Sullivan (West Ham owner)
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Bert added 23:03 - Jan 11 Understandably, Lambert's responses are causing a few raised eyebrows. He needs to learn to swot some questions away and say less. Also, Phil could do with conducting shorter media interviews as they are getting boringly longer and longer with so much repetition.
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thundercat added 07:36 - Jan 12 So, he reckons that we could have scored 5 or 6, if the players were good enough we would have done
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SamsDad added 09:33 - Jan 12 There are 50 odd comments on this thread, a lot of them are negative. We won 4-1 yesterday, made a team on a decent run look terrible, looked like we could score whenever we were near their goal etc I'd say he's got a point
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blueboy1981 added 09:52 - Jan 12 Less pointless words Paul, we've all become tired of hearing where you played, the big Clubs you've been at as Manager ( not terribly impressive since Norwich !! ) - just get on with winning football matches for us. You've been awarded an unbelievable contract, now just prove why you were worth it. That's all we ask, and want.
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blueboy1981 added 10:02 - Jan 12 ....... have to say that amongst our players, some haven't shown enough concentration and effort in matches - falsely believing that they are superior to opposition and just need to turn up to win. Both the above are necessary in this League 1, brain / skill doesn't always crack the Ice at this level, and braun / effort can achieve positive results. Not always, but often. Rotation itself has done nothing to put players under a spotlight in terms of performance, knowing however they play rotation will ensure a game. Ditch that hideous idea Lambert - you're NOT operating at that requirement level, other than in your dreams maybe.

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Dissboyitfc added 10:06 - Jan 12 Samsdad... what is his point? He could have just said he was pleased and happy. His post match rants are becoming tiring and boring and will do more harm than good! No true supporter/ follower or employee of the club want to see itfc fail, all the moaning has been because of the opposite, the constant changing of everything has had an impact! Tactics, formations, systems and personal on the pitch do matter and make a difference, what do the coaching team get paid for? Look at teams such as sheffield utd, their success is down to their system and a settled side using players to their strengths, which is what we did yesterday. I fully expect Lambert to make changes for Tuesday against Oxford to try and prove a point, very reminiscent of MM. This team worked well against Wickham, stick with it now until changes are forced!

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blueboy1981 added 10:15 - Jan 12 Lamberts problem is he thinks he's bigger than the Club he manages, it's all about him not the Club. People who care to see it are now seeing the change from the nicey, nicey, attitude portrayed by him until he gets settled in. This is the real Paul Lambert - feet under the table - five year contract - no need to be nicey, nicey to Supporters now, as you will continually find out.

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MickMillsTash added 10:19 - Jan 12 Man under pressure biting back at small levels of justified criticism that go with the job ? That didn't end well with McCarthy Who Manages the Manager ?
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MickMillsTash added 10:19 - Jan 12 SO we all know how illustrious Paul Lambert was as a player Could we have an article on TWTD listing all his achievements as a Player - this can be copied and sent to all supporters. Then he will feel no need to repeat in interviews- it must bore him as much as it does me.
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blueboy1981 added 10:31 - Jan 12 Alienating himself from supporters will not concern him now - he has what he wanted from the onset. Only fools won't realise what that was.
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SamsDad added 10:49 - Jan 12 Dissboy it's Wycombe not Wickham
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BettyBlue added 10:51 - Jan 12 Lambert bags himself a 5 year £5m contract win or lose. Overnight turns from Mr Supporter's Best Friend into touchy insecure self obsessed Mick McCarthy old style bore.
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Dissboyitfc added 10:53 - Jan 12 Samsdad i stand corrected thank you. perhaps you could answer my question, what is his point?
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Dissboyitfc added 10:55 - Jan 12 After all is said and done, outsiders wishing you to fail should spur you on!
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blueboy1981 added 11:32 - Jan 12 I agree totally with his ‘winning' theory - why compete to do anything other than win ? - and as mentioned ‘if winning isn't important, why keep the score' ?
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htb added 11:43 - Jan 12 If it is absolute b.....cks that it is about systems why does he keep changing it week to week? Stick with this system stop making wholesale changes to the team every week. Stop talking so much gibberish at press conferences, win a few games and I am sure everyone will be on side again. The only person who seems pissed off with this result seems to be Lambert maybe he wanted the same lineup to fail so he could say I told you so!!!

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SamsDad added 13:20 - Jan 12 You have answered it yourself dissboy. I dont think he thinks it is outsiders, I think it's aimed at the local press. Look at the article the last 2 paragraphs for me are most important , that and the question about Evans wanting the team to play football. At the Rotherham game there were people around me booing at the half time whistle. We had just lost our first league game, we might even still have been top before the game. Why boo? Why boo our own team, and why when we are top (or 2nd)? In fact why boo our own team at any time? Aren't we supposed to be the 12th man for our team rather than the other team? There is one poster who has commented on this article who in my view absolutely wants PL to fail, has called him out for what he said yesterday and denied wanting failure. Not naming names but I bet a lot of people know who I mean. Like I say I think he's aiming it at the press, but there are a few ‘fans' too

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blue86 added 13:23 - Jan 12 SamsDad- the thing is if lambert came out and said, it was great to get 3 much needed points, and the players performed well etc etc, then people would not react to his comments. The comments he made are not necessary after a great win like that, I'm not happy with his comments sometimes, like saying he could leave tomorrow and he will get his coat recently. I love town and I want us, lambert the whole club to do well, I dont want us to fail! What fan would in their right mind? It really bugged me when he said he could leave, but had nearly agreed a 5 year contract! (And has now) what's that all about? I want us to succeed just think lambert needs to stop being bipolar like he can be. Anyway coyb!

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Dissboyitfc added 14:54 - Jan 12 Well said Blueboy86!!!
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Dissboyitfc added 15:10 - Jan 12 Samsdad......“But, my God, a couple of defeats here and you think the world's caved in, it's incredible. It was a run very similar to Hurst's ( 14 without a win ) which lead to his removal from the position, we have been on a very dismal run of which he has to shoulder the main portion of blame! And its not a run that would have been accepted at all those big clubs and big games he played in! Yesterdays post match interview should not have been about his differences with the media, he is, or is he? clever enough to move onto the next subject the only subject and that was the game!

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BeattiesBackPocket added 15:40 - Jan 12 As much as we all have differing opinions on here I don't think anyone on here or with the club wants us to fail even the McCarthy fans and Evans haters and if you do bug&er off an watch Norwich!
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