Ritchie frustrated at missing McLeod

Mar 3 2008 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ANDY RITCHIE says his unsuccessful pursuit of Charlton striker Izale McLeod shows how tough bringing in new faces has become.

Town’s manager revealed his frustration at losing out to Colchester in the race for the loan capture of the 23-year-old in the wake of Saturday’s setback against Swansea, when his side failed to score for the second match in succession.

“We thought we had Izale on Thursday,” said Ritchie of the former Derby and MK Dons man who cost Charlton £1.1m last close-season.

“But then two Championship sides came in and he ended up joining Colchester. I don’t blame him for wanting to play at as high a level as possible, but it’s frustrating.”

McLeod, who played alongside Town winger Malvin Kamara at MK, made his Colchester debut in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat by Wolves at Layer Road.

Ritchie will continue his bid to strengthen the squad but warned: “It’s very difficult at this stage of the season.

“Most clubs are in a battle to get promoted or avoid relegation and don’t want to lose capable players.

“We’re not really able to take a gamble on an 18-year-old who is unproven. We need someone with more of a track record who will add to what we already have.

“While we’ve had a few nibbles, there’s been nothing concrete, but we’ll continue to look this week.”

Ritchie admitted his team made too many wrong decisions against Swansea, who won through Jason Scotland’s strike in first-half stoppage time.

“We went for shots when we should have taken the ball further on,” he said after a game watched by 10,471.

“We made life hard for Swansea, but I’m not convinced we wanted to score badly enough.

“I thought a challenge from Darren Pratley as Luke Beckett was about to head the ball in showed how much they wanted to keep the ball out of their net and perhaps their desire was a little bit stronger than ours.

“We can still make the play-offs, but we need to win around 10 of our remaining 13 games. It’s a tall order, but it’s possible.”

Ritchie saw centre-back Rob Page red carded for a second bookable offence in the 82nd minute, keeping him out of tomorrow’s game at Swindon.

“I thought the referee was a bit harsh,” said Ritchie.

“The ball bounced high and it looked like Jason Scotland handled it to get on the wrong side of Rob, then he went down pretty easily.

“It’s a blow but we’ll get on with it and now David Mirfin will come in at Swindon and get a chance to impress.”