With recent postponements against Rochdale and Gillingham resulting in a 19-day break without a game, the gaffer’s pre-match interviews in that time sadly never saw the light of day. There was still plenty to take from them however, so we’ve summarised the best bits below to provide an update on the last few weeks at Carrington:
On injuries…
Two would have been available for us for the Gillingham game, two wouldn’t. Vit’s fine, come back in and it’s like he hasn’t been away really in terms of how he’s trained – obviously not had a game yet.
Sarce would have been close for the Rochdale game to be honest, but he’s one that has benefited from that game being off and has now come back into contention and is available for us, which is a big boost.
Joe is more of a wait and see, a day by day one really. He’s got some bruises on his bone from the Charlton game so we just have to be a little bit careful with him. Time-frame wise I can’t put anything on it, but I wouldn’t expect it to be long.
Hussey similarly came back and trained, and we thought would benefit from Rochdale being off. He’s had a little bit of a set-back but nothing too severe. Wouldn’t have thought he’d be involved against Gillingham, but we have nine days after that before we play Crewe so hopefully in that space of time he will be very close to a return.
On Vit Jaros’ return from injury…
It’s not really [a difficult call]. For me it’s the same call as it would be for a centre-forward, a centre-half, a centre-midfield player. What potentially happens is that Ben’s possibly under a little bit more pressure than he will have been with Bobby, without being disrespectful to him, because all of a sudden in that scenario you do have a more defined number 1 and number 2.
With Vit coming back in, it’s what we said at the start of the season – it’s two number 1s to go and fight for that place. Ultimately, the way things are at the minute, Ben is in control of what happens so, hopefully, Vit doesn’t get the opportunity and has to sit and be patient, because if that’s the case then things are going really well.
On new signing Phil Bardsley…
Phil’s been in for a while with us now training. We had conversations at the start of the season, but he picked up an injury that required minor surgery, and it’s been frustrating for him as he’s had little set-backs along the way. But what he is, he’s keen to finish his career – whenever that might be, no-one’s saying that will be in six months’ time – to finish what’s been a brilliant career for him on a real high and with some real enjoyment.
He’s the type of person who wants to be involved, and is here for all of the right reasons. He’ll add unbelievable experience and know-how, not just on the pitch but certainly off the pitch in terms of pushing and maintaining standards. He’s fitted in really well, really looking forward to working with him and we hope he can get himself fit and involved as soon as possible.
On the turnaround in form…
At the start of the season we were punished really severely for individual mistakes – I’m not saying we’ve completely eradicated those mistakes, but what tends to happen when you’re on a decent run is that some things tend to go in your favour. At the start of the season when chances were maybe just going the wrong side of the post, now they’re going on the inside of the post. I think we’ve earnt that.
On the flip side of that is that when opportunities have come around in recent weeks, we’ve been ruthless and we’ve put the ball away. We have to continue to do that whilst still looking to improve on certain aspects of our performance, but I think even when we’re not at our best, we can still be a real test for the majority of teams just by sticking to our principles and playing at the intensity we want to play at.
On the next ten games…
We’ve had a good run in the last ten games. Unfortunately the first (now first two) have been postponed, but the ‘next ten’ take us up until around February, and we feel like we have a big opportunity.
Without wanting to put a points total on it, we know where we need to be – we need to be ahead of where we’d like to be ideally, because of the start we had, but we see the next ten games as a real opportunity to put us in a position where we can challenge going into the final 16 games of the season.
We’ve certainly got games at home that, on paper, look tough. We have Northampton, have Bradford, teams that are near the top of the table, but we’re at Edgeley, and we’ll look to hopefully continue to make it a difficult place for teams to come. It’s a period over Christmas and New Year where, with the number of games, teams have the chance to put themselves in a position to challenge and that’s what we need to do.
