Town manager Roy Keane says the Blues support were fine towards him at Watford on Tuesday, despite his critical comments earlier in the week. The Blues boss was disappointed that his side were unable to give them something to cheer about at Vicarage Road.

Keane said: “The fans have been fine. My point was about getting behind the younger players, but the fans were fine the other night. They were right behind us and it would have been nice if we’d have got the equaliser.

“We’ve looked at the goal which was disallowed and we’re still struggling to find where the offside was on that.

“When you lose a game of football, you always feel disappointed for supporters who pay decent money and travel away. Hopefully they’ll travel to Forest and we’ll give them a better result.”

The Irishman says that the point he was trying to make was that the club’s youngsters need more support: “I can understand the moaning and groaning, I have no problem with that, but sometimes just encourage the younger players just that little bit more because we have inexperienced players in important parts of the pitch.

“I hope they’re not too upset, I hope they’re fine and I hope they will agree with me in terms of getting behind the younger players.

“The senior boys will be fine because they’ve played 300, 400 or 500 games but the younger players who might not have played 10 games yet sometimes need that little bit more encouragement, particularly after they’ve made a mistake. That was all I was asking and I’m sure fans will understand that.”

Keane feels what he says isn't always portrayed as he intended: “The point was to be constructive but it won’t necessarily come across that way because usually the word that follows my name when I say something like that is ‘blasts’. You’ve got lazy journalists around the place and that’s the word they seem to use.

“If people think I was blasting anybody, I wasn’t. It was just a case of getting behind the younger players.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

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