Vogts Finally Watches Holt and Mackay

Last updated : 09 February 2004 By Thomas Rooney

Neither Holt or Mackay were aware of the German's presence until after the final whistle. They will now be hoping that they did enough to secure a place in the Scotland squad.

Holt has been capped by Scotland on three occasions but Mackay has yet to be capped for his beloved Scotland. Although he admits he was excited when he was made aware that the Manager was watching.

"It's fantastic that the Scotland manager is at a game I have played in. I am absolutely delighted, it's nice to see him come to a Norwich game, it's fantastic and I think if myself and Gary keep our standards up that's all we can do and you never know what may happen. It's great to see him at one of our games."

Mackay believes that even if he knew of Berti Vogts presence at the game it would have made no difference to his performance as he is a player who can handle the pressure.

"It's not a pressure thing because I didn't see him," he said. "I have played for long enough now, places like the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and there was no pressure there, so when you're at teams like Wimbledon and you're top of the league and enjoying it, then that's no pressure."

Mackay admits the conditions are not the best for playing football at the National Hockey Stadium, having to contend with the sun as well as the wind.

"The wind is something you can contend with, but honestly the sun was dreadful in the second half," he said. "It was really low and at times you're jumping for things and you don't know what you're hitting.

"You don't know if you are actually going to clash heads or head the ball."

As for the two sending's off towards the end of the match Mackay believes the referee was left with no choice and made the right decisions.

"The goalkeeper had to go and after that I don't know what happened with Mark Williams but the ref decided he'd had enough and he had to go," said Mackay. "But against nine men you really have to keep your concentration levels up.

"There were a lot of high balls and things can break on the edge of the box, anything can happen.

"Balls can spill, and if they'd pegged a goal back there would have been serious repercussions. If we'd drawn against nine men even in those conditions, we'd have had a lot of questions to answer.

"It's important to keep your concentration. Wimbledon may be young lads but they are a very good footballing team with a lot of enthusiasm. They just want to go out and play football.

"Forget about contracts and money, they have a good ethos at this club. To come here and get a clean sheet speaks volumes for the ways our preparations are going around the club.

"I thought we did a decent enough job, with big Rob (Green) behind keeping the talking going. I am pleased with a clean sheet, really pleased."

I know everyone is saying that we 'shouldn't be counting our chickens' about promotion, but why not? As long as the coaching staff and players don't get carried away I think as supporters we have the right to get a bit carried away and excited. I for one am looking forward to seeing Henry up against Malky....... I think.

On the ball.......

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