Paolo Mandelli celebrates the victory in Bari and the decisive goal by Defrel

A little smile escapes him, the kind that are only allowed on certain days: "But in the meantime let's look at the victory of Bari and let's enjoy it, we achieved something beautiful also for the 251 who came to support us. We enjoy the success, we don't have time to think about anything else".

It's part of the role, Paul Mandelli his feet knows how to keep them firmly in place, despite the obvious joy held back internally. It is probably the rosiest period of his management, for results and quality expressed: "I am also happy with how the goals arrived - he continued - with actions built in a certain way. We dropped our attention a bit and I told the boys, we conceded the goal at the end of the first half and there was still the whole second half to go but we didn't just defend ourselves, we could have closed it with the third goal. Credit to the team that acquired an important maturity at the end of the season. Sprint playoff? The boys suffered during the championship, they earned what they have now and I see them training with the right desire without needing further stimuli. The derby has many, we hope there will be many people, we don't need numbers or other things to find motivation".

On the Palumbo replacement: "He has been playing with his knee bandaged for a few weeks now – he concluded –, he trains and doesn't train, but he does everything he can to be there because he wants to be a protagonist. He kicked a ball badly and felt discomfort, as a professional he understood that he couldn't give his contribution and asked to be substituted. It is logical that Kamate doesn't have the same characteristics, however, he showed important numbers, right choices, he ran and fought, both he and all the other substitutes settled into the game well". The signature of Defrel on the canary success, awaited for 13 years. It is the third goal of the former Sassuolo player, who was also close to a personal brace with a shot from outside the box that went just wide in the second half: "A great move, the ball came to Gerli on the right side, the goalkeeper parried it and I don't even remember how I hit it but it went in and that's fine - smiled Defrel - during my career I felt better as a second striker, but I really liked the role of central striker in Bari because I helped my teammates in the offensive phase. My condition has improved, the goal comes when you are well. I felt energized, I ran well, I fought and this is a good sign for the last matches. Training has helped us make a leap in quality. After Salernitana and Juve Stabia there was something that wasn't right even in the small matches between us, we understood it and we raised the pace and I think it showed".