“It is true that three points is more than we deserved against Ascoli” Stefano Morrone told the official site, “but we showed great belief until the final whistle. Ascoli played very well and made life very difficult for us both defensively and offensively. It is very common for a game like the Ascoli one, where the weather and the pitch were awful, to be decided on one random episode and luckily for us, it was Paponi’s strike. Before a month ago, we would have almost certainly lost this game so we are clearing maturing and improving as a team. This was shown by how well we closed the game out after we scored. Ascoli did not have many shots at our goal but in all fairness, neither did we. We defended well but we poor in attack but like I said, in games like this it takes a moment of awareness to win it, and Paponi did just that.”

“I am very upset that I recieved a yellow card today because it means I will miss the game against Livorno on Saturday; a game in which I really wanted to play after some great seasons there. It was a caution that I could have avoided, and I like to think that the referee could have been more lenient due to the state of the pitch and the tough conditions, but I am the first to admit that it was a silly challenge. However, all that matters is that we got the three points.”

“It will be a special game for Cristiano Lucarelli for similar reasons, but I don’t think people should be worried about his lack of goals from open play. Afterall, it is up to the rest of us in the team to set up the chances for him and we havn’t been doing that enough. He had a good chance against Ascoli but the keeper was equal to it. It must not be forgotton just how hard Cristiano works for the team; he never stops moving up front, giving the team options, and is a great talisman to have in the squad. In his career, he has always proved to be more prolific in the second half of the season anyway so I’m sure we’ll see many more goals from him in the new year.”

“Under Francesco Guidolin we are now 10 games unbeaten and this gives a squad a great sense of solidarity and belief in itself. Even though we had a poor start to the season, and then needed a few matches in which to get used to the new manager’s system, I believe we now deserve to be where in are in the table and have done very well to recover almost all of the of the disadvantageous position we left ourselves in early on.”

Pete