Gray: It was a harsh lesson

Last updated : 07 August 2007 By Dave Foster
'It was a bit of a lesson for us," he told the official website.

"We won't beat ourselves up over it - it was a learning curve and the team we played were one game away from the Premiership last season with pretty much the same squad. We have told the players they won't play teams like that every week, but we have to learn the lessons from this game and not give the ball away so cheaply.

"This game showed the ability West Brom have but that is the level we have to get to. This was a different sort of game to the Coventry match, we gave the ball away too cheaply. I know we are physically ready for the season but we still need to improve on the mental side - we were caught napping for the 5th goal and we need to tune in at all times and never switch off.

"We have to learn from it and become a better side for it. We won't be facing any teams in League One as good as West Brom or Coventry, but we have to use these games to get ourselves to as a high a level as we can. They have punished us for the slightest mistake and that is a great lesson to learn.

"When you get beaten heavily you can learn a lot from those games. Our best move of the night was the goal, and that was good combination play down the left. Ian took his goal well, but he can improve on other aspects of his game.