EGAN-RILEY TALKS POINT AGAINST LEEDS

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Defender pleased with defensive display

2025-01-27T23:37:33.760Z

EGAN-RILEY TALKS POINT AGAINST LEEDS

Defender pleased with defensive display

2025-01-27T23:37:33.760Z

Defender pleased with defensive display

CJ Egan-Riley said he believed Monday night's draw against league leaders Leeds United was a good point on reflection and that he was looking forward to the team pushing on as the season continues.

Following a tight affair at Turf Moor the defender said: “A point, probably in the grand scheme of things, is a good point. To take four points away from Leeds this season, you’d take it at the start of the season.

“We know they are around our level and our place in the table at the moment. At the end of the day, it’s a tough game but we’ve come away with a point, we’ve not lost the game, so there’s positives to take for sure. Obviously, we want more but it happens sometimes in football.”

Daniel Farke's side arrived in Lancashire as the league's top scorers and on a rainy evening the Clarets managed to limit them to little chances on the night.

“Yes, thinking back over the game I don’t remember them having many clear chances. I remember one at the end, a half volley that Traff tipped over the bar. But apart from that I don’t remember too many chances, so to limit the team that’s got the most goals, and one of the best attacks in the league, to next to nothing in a 90-minute game is a positive.

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“There’s more that we want to do, we want to be able to win these games of course but there’s positives to take from today.”

With it being very tight at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table, was the defender expecting such a cagey game coming into the encounter?

“Yes, these are the games that you look at and they are a bit more tactical. When you look at the teams in and around the top of the table and we probably knew coming into the game the way it would look and how we envisioned it. Of course, we still wanted to be on the front foot, create chances and try and score some goals. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a goal tonight, but we keep pushing forward. In the last game we scored five goals, so it’s there, we know we can do it now. Obviously in these games, especially at home we just need to try and score more goals if we can. It’ll come, from where we were two or three months ago in terms of creating chances and goals, we’ve already come a long way and there’s more to come for the rest of the season.”

It was another accomplished performance from the 22-year-old and a 20th clean sheet of the campaign. How much satisfaction does he take from that?

“Of course, now the way football is people look at defenders and you need to be able to play on the ball, you need to be able to do this and do that but the first thing you need to do is defend and not let any goals in. And at the moment as a team, we’re doing that. I think people get caught up in either the back four or me, Maxi and Traff, stuff like that and think it’s just us. But it’s definitely not. It starts with the attack and the midfield, that pressing, winning second balls, being tactically strong. Everyone has their own roles and jobs that’s contributing to us having those clean sheets and not conceding many goals. It’s a collective effort and we’re doing well at it at the moment.”

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Head Coach Scott Parker has been full of praise for his side's determination to not concede goals, following another clean sheet and a good point on the board, what was his message to Egan-Riley and the players post-match?

“We knew coming into the game that Leeds are where they are in the league for a reason, we know they’re a good team who are dangerous in attack and also are good defensively. So, we knew coming into the game it was going to be a tough one.

“When we played them at their place it was a tough game, obviously we managed to come away from there with a win, but his message was it’s been a tough challenge now, we’ve played quite a lot of the teams at the top of the table twice. So now in the games that we do have, we just need to go and do the business which we can and just keep pushing forward.”