Jevani Brown was thrilled to be seeing the results of work taking place on the training field paying dividends in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stevenage at the Abbey Stadium.
Brown played a crucial role in United’s triumph, assisting David Amoo for the U’s opener before putting the game to bed moments before half time with a strike of his own.
The midfield maestro was pleased to highlight after the match, that the goals and chances United carved out had a direct correlation with the messages being delivered by Head Coach Colin Calderwood at the Inc. Training Ground.
He said: “We have worked in training on creating more genuine clear cut chances in matches. Sometimes before we would get the ball out wide and we’d put it in the box for the sake of being in the right area, when there is only really Jabo (Ibehre) in the box on his own.
“Now we are looking at working our way through the pitch, using little slide balls through to create more one-on-ones as opposed to purely attacking down the wings all of the time, which is still important to give us more variation. We did it well against Stevenage.
“There is still an opportunity to improve particularly in converting our chances now, given our goal difference is the way that it is. We had probably more opportunities to extend our lead, especially in the second half.
“The main thing though is we have taken it on board and we created a number of clear cut chances on goal, and now we need to get better at putting them away.”
The 24-year old’s sixth goal of the season moments before half time ensured the U’s had a comfortable second half at the Abbey on Saturday, and Brown admits adding further goals to his game and taking the match by the scruff of the neck at times will bring significant progress for both himself and the team equally.
“As a ten it really is all about creating and scoring goals. Growing up I never really scored many goals if I’m being honest, I was more of an assist person. It’s something that I’ve looked to add to my game since being here.
“It’s just as important now to get more goals for the team. It’s always good to assist but likewise sometimes it’s important to take matters into your own hands. I was very pleased to get on the score sheet, it feels like I haven’t scored in a while so it was good to end that drought.
“Also for where we are at now as a team, the sooner I can either create a chance for a team mate to put away or score myself then we’ll be able to kill more games off earlier.”
Finally, discussing the added impetus on his defensive work for the team, Brown said: “The gaffer (Colin Calderwood) rightly had a go at me about my defensive work after the MK Dons game, so I had to take that on the chin and improve because you know he wants the best for you and the team.
“The whole team worked their socks off, and we need to continue to go out and run until we can’t run anymore. We need to take pride in our work rate.”