Hoskins 'disappointed' to miss out on a hat-trick as Nolan details reason for his substitution
Kevin Nolan felt taking off Sam Hoskins was the right thing to do despite the forward’s ‘disappointment’ at missing out on a potential hat-trick against Peterborough.
Hoskins scored twice in the first half, a fine finish into the top corner and then a well-taken penalty, but despite further pressure from Cobblers against the 10 men of Posh, he couldn’t bag his first Town hat-trick before being withdrawn.
"Of course it’s disappointing not to get a hat-trick but that seems to happen to me fairly often – I get substituted when I’m on two goals,” admitted Hoskins. “It is a little bit disappointing but it’s a nice position to be in and it’s certainly not going to ruin the feeling of the day.”
Nolan explained: "To be fair I did say to Sammy at half-time that he had a little bit of time to get his hat-trick before we made the change. Obviously he didn't get it so he had to come off!
"I've got a lot of time for sentiment in football but not when there’s a game to win and a job to do and we felt that was the right thing to do. We did think about maybe moving AK (Akin Odimayo) over to the left side and putting Sam at right wing-back but I'm sure he would have given me a bit of stick for that as well because he would have been further away from goal.
"But Sam was fantastic today and he's been magnificent since I've come in. You can see how much this club means to him and it's a real credit to him because they were two fantastic finishes. When you miss a penalty, sometimes that fear factor comes in but he took it so well. Even if the goalkeeper goes the right way he's got no chance of saving it.”