Boss prepares for the challenge of The Red Devils...
WITH Andy Butler returning from suspension and James Chambers having come into the heart of the defence and put in an impressive performance in our goalless draw at Peterborough in the last game, it gives me a tough decision to make for Saturday’s clash with Crawley Town.
These are the kind of decisions that I am paid to make and I will make what I believe is the correct decision to help us secure maximum points.
With the likes of Ben Purkiss also recently coming back into the side and doing well, I have got people challenging for places and that is exactly what we need at this stage of the season.
We will be without Andy Taylor once more at the weekend. He is progressing from his knee injury, but is a little behind schedule. It’s frustrating for him as he wants to be out there playing, but we have an able replacement in Mal Benning who has come in and done well in recent games.
There are a lot of games coming up when we will need to utilise the whole squad, so everyone has to be ready as they all have a role to play.
Looking back at our game at Peterborough, we played some great football despite the conditions. I expected that kind of application and determination because that is what we are all about and what we do.
We now turn our attention to the challenge that Crawley Town will present to us. They have suffered more than most at the hands of the weather and haven’t played for a month.
I’ve actually seen them play this year against Coventry – there are not many people who can say that!
It’s been frustrating for John Gregory and his players. They have seen a couple of players come and go in recent weeks, but we will be concentrating on what we do and getting our own preparations right.
We know that our visitors will be itching to get back into action and we will have to make sure that we start well because they will come quickly out of the traps.
The lads will take a lot of belief from our display at London Road; we’re as fit as anyone and train with enough intensity to be ready for games.
Anyone can beat each other at this level and we know that the only reason Crawley are down there is because they have played fewer games than anyone else.
We’ve only ever played them three times and each of those encounters has ended in a draw, so another close game is in prospect on Saturday.
DEAN SMITH