D’Aversa: “We need our battling spirit of old”

Roberto D’Aversa was left chew over another match with no points – Sampdoria’s third of the new year – after Francesco Caputo’s opener was overturned by Torino.

“It’s a shame,” the coach began after the final whistle. “I expected us to do better. We took the lead and did well at the start of both halves. We have to give Torino credit where it’s due but we had the clearest-cut chances with [Morten] Thorsby and [Fabio] Quagliarella. We weren’t good enough to hold onto the lead and gave the goals away too cheaply. We must improve in certain areas.”

The teams below are now that much closer but the coach is adamant his side can keep them at arm’s length. “We mustn’t let fear get the better of us. We’ve had three home games which we could have used to pull ourselves further away from the drop zone and we failed to make the most of them, taking the lead then surrendering it.

“Now we have to roll our sleeves up and get points on the board so that we can get ourselves out of this. We need to rediscover the battling spirit we had at the end of last year. That’s what makes the difference in games: your determination and desire to win at all costs. Our next league game against Spezia is massive.

On Thorsby’s injury: “He wanted to stay on despite his injury. It’s a shame it happened just before they equalised.”