On looking ahead to tomorrow’s game

We’re really excited and obviously there is nothing unusual about a Saturday-Tuesday scenario so we’re prepared. At the minute it’s as much short and sharp preparation training sessions because at this stage of the season fitness shouldn’t be a problem. There’s one or two like Alfie (Pavey) that are trying to get back to fitness, but the short turnaround in games isn’t an issue for us, we have got a squad that is able to cope with it. 

The concern I have a tiny bit is the travelling, with three games on the road which plays it part but that’s not an excuse. It’s another difficult game but it’s one we’re very much looking forward to. 

On our superb league form and heading to Woking with confidence 

What is pleasing for me on this run of games of one defeat in 16 is I’m confident in the players and they’re confident in each other. I know we have had spells in the last couple of games where we might have been on the back foot, but we have ridden through those moments and come out on the other side. The players are fully aware that we need wins, so they are focused on what is in front of us. 

But the confidence that we have in the team and they have in each other has contributed to that stat of one in 16. So we need to continue that, but it is very evident that we are looking to turn one or two draws into wins. 

On the different ways the team has played to get results on that run 

It’s a nice attribute to have, we’ve been ruthless at times during this run and gone on to get two or three goals. Other times we have had to grind it out to get a point, our pitch which has usually been immaculate has been very difficult to play on with the weather we have had in the last two or three months. We have been adjusting tactics, adjusting the style of play and personnel, we’ve coped with it pretty well. 

Going forward and for the remainder of the season, I have been saying how much we are going to need everyone. Certain games are gonna be for certain players and other games are going to suit others, that’s part of the run in and part of my job to get it right. 

On what to expect from Woking 

It’ll probably be another tight, exciting, close match that will hopefully be decided on a bit of brilliance or a bit of good play, rather than misfortune or a mistake. I have got game changing players on the pitch, I have match winners, I have people that can impact the game from the bench as well.

We will go there confident knowing it’s another difficult fixture, but certainly, one that we will go there with confidence. At this stage of the season, it is crucial that we have that attribute of confidence. 

On our position and the games in hand 

There is always a lot of talk and I can be guilty as anyone to talk about games in hand. But the facts are that we take on one game at a time, that’s our intentions. It is always nice to look at the league table and if this and if that, but it is one game at a time, it’s important that’s how we approach it, that’s how we have been approaching games, it’s the game that’s the most important one.

When your looking at games in hand, you can second guess ten things that potentially could play out. What we have is an amount of games with a number of points available and we have a target in sight that we believe will help us achieve the play-offs. I have always been someone who would rather have points on the board than games in hand, those games in hand have come about because of the unfortunate amount of games at home that have been cancelled.

We’ve had to deal with that and we have kept going, now we find ourselves edging closer and what we need to do is continue that for the rest of the season.

On togetherness on and off the pitch

I think I have stated since day one that I want people to be happy and ultimately if they are happy they perform better. We need to be happy, we need to be focused and we need to be calm at this stage of the season. There needs to be a togetherness that all the best teams in the world have a real togetherness. I heard Ole Gunnar Solskjaer between the United fans and the players had during the derby victory.

It’s no different, perhaps there is a different scale of it, at the very top compared to the teams at our level. We need everyone connected, everyone together and all of us will get some enjoyment out of it if we stick together.