The Gills manager reflects on Tuesday’s EFL Cup victory against Southend United
Gills manager Justin Edinburgh spoke to the press following Tuesday’s fantastic 3-1 victory over Southend United at Roots Hall, the second victory by the same scoreline in four days against the Essex club.
Behind at half-time, Cody McDonald and two from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas gave the Gills another memorable victory.
Edinburgh… on the game: “It’s very pleasing on what was a difficult night with injuries again. We’re disappointed to have gone behind, but Southend started well. Credit to the players, we’ve had two injuries, and that didn’t really disrupt us. It was brilliant to have overcome that, we showed great resilience. The players who came on settled straight in and second half we looked dangerous again.”
Edinburgh on…Jay Emmanuel-Thomas: “We knew we had to be cautious with him, as he’s not had as many minutes as he’d have liked at QPR pre-season. It was part of our plan to be in the game, bring him on, for the game to open up and for him to affect it. That’s certainly what happened tonight.
“For somebody of his quality, and what he’s achieved at this level, we knew he’d be an influential player. It’s there for everybody to see why we wanted to bring him into the football club.”
Edinburgh on…injuries to Max Ehmer and Bradley Dack: “Max is fully conscious, he’s fine now. I think after the fall he found it hard to get his breath back and there was a blow to the head. We’re awaiting cautionary scans to check everything is alright.
“Bradley came down on his knee and jarred it, we’re hoping from a first look at we’re going to be OK on that one. We’ll get it scanned tomorrow and serious, but we’re hoping there’s no serious damage.”
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