Parkinson said to the club website: “I’m delighted by the lads’ effort today. It was a really hard-working performance from them. We’d spoken throughout pre-season about working hard, closing down, keeping with your runners and really putting a shift in during games, and I thought we did that today. I thought the discipline of the boys was excellent, and on top of that we played some really good football during the game as well.”
“It’s difficult to single out just one particular player for praise after an effort like that. The work rate and attitude of the lads was first class. Going 120 minutes was a good fitness test for us, especially coming so early into this new season. To get through those 120 minutes and still look fresh towards the end is a credit to the players and the work they have done during pre-season. We now need to take all the good things out of today and carry them over into the Gillingham game next weekend.”