Boss looking to maintain reds record...
I'M REALLY looking forward to it going to the City Ground. It’s always good to pit your wits against sides from higher divisions and hopefully we can go there and get a result.
I’ve been constantly reminded about our recent record against Nottingham Forest so there’s a bit of pressure to keep that going.
We know it’s a really tough draw. They’re one of the fancied teams in the Championship but in recent years we’ve got a good record of getting to the second round.
Unfortunately we’ve came across the likes of Crystal Palace, QPR, Stoke City and they’ve proved just too much for us on the day.
It’ll be nice to meet up with Jamie Paterson, a player who we all know about and performed very well for us during his time here.
For us though, we’ll have to be better on the ball than we were against Oldham. In possession we have to take better care in our decisions and our passing. We were too loose and against a side like Forest they will punish us if we give them chance.
That said, we know we’ve got goal scorers in this team and I’m confident we can go there and cause them problems. We started the game really brightly at the weekend but we have to build on it.
I’ve got a good group of players and a squad that, if players aren’t performing, I can make changes. Players missed out against Oldham who had a great pre-season so those that do get picked have to be on their toes.
We go into the game looking to get as far in the cup as we can but we also acknowledge that this is as tough as it comes.
Dean Smith