HAYEN’S POST-MATCH POINTS: NOTTS COUNTY

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Head Coach reflects on Carabao Cup first round win

2026-08-08T18:37+01:00

HAYEN’S POST-MATCH POINTS: NOTTS COUNTY

Head Coach reflects on Carabao Cup first round win

2026-08-08T18:37+01:00

Nicky Hayen was pleased to see his team progress to the second round of the Carabao Cup on Saturday afternoon.

It took a penalty shoot-out to decide at Turf Moor and whilst the Clarets' Head Coach saw elements he wants to improve, he said the win in the end is 'what counts'.

HAPPY TO PROGRESS

“I’m happy to go through to the next round of the cup, this is the most important. At the end that’s what counts.

“We’re aware it wasn’t the perfect performance today. We had some really good moments but there were also moments when we were too sloppy, we played too slowly, and this is something that we have to improve.

“It was an average performance. I thought we started really well the first 20 minutes, really dominant, recovered a lot of balls high on the pitch. But then we lost our organisation a little bit, didn’t do the runs anymore that we had to do. They scored; we were a little shocked. We felt like we were playing quite well, a little bit of arrogance, this is something that we can’t accept - we always have to stay focused for 95 minutes.

“When they scored there was a little bit of panic and that’s why we said at half-time, that our performance has to be better, we have to increase the level again and we have to show what our level is.

“The first 15 minutes of the second half we have a better moment again, we score the equaliser. We pushed for the second goal, but we didn’t create enough chances or create enough depth in our game."

CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE

“It’s good for the atmosphere. You see the smiling faces in the dressing room, and this is something that we can use going into next week. It’s a big game next week, the stadium will be sold-out.

“We had a really good atmosphere today. This is something we want to create, a great atmosphere, a better connection between the players and the fans.

“We have to bring that energy into the stadium by delivering performances. We have to promise that we’ll keep on going for 95 minutes, pull up our sleeves. We want the fans to be able to identify with the team for 95 minutes and that at the end they can say they did everything. We will always give the maximum that we can to please them.”

RETURNEES RAMSEY, ROBERTS & AMDOUNI

“You can see they are loved by the fans so it’s nice to see that they had an impact in the past. This is something that we have to use. It was great that these players had minutes, that they sustained quite well. Now day by day and game by game they’ll have more minutes. We have to continue the way we are working at the moment.”