Joey, Derby County next up. What do you make of the challenge?
We had the lads watch their game and Exeter got a solid point there, but we must take enormous confidence into it. Derby are a big club, a big side, but we’ve just played first and third in the division and I think anyone at those games would say we stood toe-to-toe and were more than a match for them.
We’ll go to Derby and we’ll play our way and we’ll attack them because why would we not?
What can we expect from Derby, who are still recovering from last season’s off-field problems?
They’ve had a couple go off, I think James Chester went off on Tuesday and Curtis Davies went off in the game on Friday. They’ve been playing a back three of late and that might be subject to change, I’m not sure.
But we’ll be focusing on us and we feel if we get us right, we’re more than a match for anybody. We’ll pay Derby the respect they are due by preparing for them the same way we’d prepare for any team, but there will be no fear attached to us and we’ll be looking to put a great performance on again in front of incredible travelling support for League One.
I’ve seen it is 3,000, they are Premier League numbers so hopefully, we can give them a victory and make some more memories.
Just tell me about the quality and confidence compared to the likes of the Barnsley game earlier in the season. You have come on leaps and bounds in a short space of time.
There were reasons for those performances in terms of we had square pegs in round holes at the time and we were scrapping away.
I was laughing with Nick Anderton who was in the dressing room and Trevor Clarke. When we played Ipswich, we had a back three of Lewis Gordon, Luca Hoole and Alfie Kilgour. We are markedly different now in terms of a solid chin and if we came here tonight with that back three, it would have been a tricky evening.
We always knew when the reinforcements came that we would be a competent team. We really believed deep down internally that we were a lot better than what the first 10 games showed and we’re starting to prove that.
It’s still early in the season and everyone is still jockeying for position, but it’s nice to see our group settling down and we’re moving in the right direction in the table.
Rovers fans will be delighted to hear what you just said. Nick Anderton was in the dressing room at Sheffield Wednesday?
He was in the dressing room. He wasn't in there before the game but he came in after. He's on his crutches but I was buzzing to see him. He's a huge part of the social part of the group and everybody cares about Nick deeply.
To lose him as a teammate and a team person is a huge blow for the group, but to see him back in there tonight – it's the first time I've seen him since the surgery – has given everybody a boost.
What’s the latest with Harry Anderson?
He felt his groin so I don’t know. I think Sheffield Wednesday could have a red card, (Michael) Ihiekwe could go, Harry thinks he’s been fouled going in, but I don’t know whether he has done it (the injury) in that moment.
We’re hoping it’s on the safer side and he’s rightly come off. The worst thing you can do is limp on and allow Sheffield Wednesday to create an opportunity.
Hopefully, he’s done the right thing and it’s not too bad.
John Marquis, how far away is he from getting back involved?
I don’t know, I’m not sure on John. He’s been in and around moving, but we haven’t put a definite timeframe on it. It’s kind of let’s see at each stage how he progresses.
He’s not a million miles away, he’s moving again. He hasn’t quite joined in with the training group but we’re hoping that will happen in the near future. Saturday maybe comes a bit too soon for him.
You had James Connolly back on the bench at Sheffield Wednesday, but with the two centre-backs you’ve got at the moment, he’s got a job to get them out of the team as it stands.
Yeah, I think he has, but the method in my madness is he gives us the option to play back threes. I’m not necessarily saying we will tie into a four, albeit we have been in recent weeks.
I’ve said to you, we want to build a team that is tactically fluid, so the lads have taken on different concepts and we’re on a bit of a 4-4-2/4-3-3 structure at the minute but that doesn’t mean we won’t go back to back threes.
Nice problems to have.
For the past two games, they have felt like wins for the fans because of the circumstances and when you go over to them, they are trying to get you to do the Klopp-style fist pump. That shows how good these results have been but I’m sure you want to give them that actual moment at Derby with three points to cap off what has been a difficult run of fixtures so far.
Look, I’ll level with you. It isn’t usually my bag and it wasn’t my bag as a player, that thing, but the fans gave me incredible support when I first came to the club in the midst of the relegation and they turn up in their numbers home and away.
They have been with us all the way and when we got on a good run, that built out of it. It does make me a bit uncomfortable but it was working and we’re winning so I’m going with it.
I can’t do it for draws. If we win, I don’t mind doing it. I’m made up they do it and it’s good to have that connection with them, but also we must win games of football if we’re going to fist pump and all that stuff.
But with the acid test of this week, you must be really confident and you must be learning a lot about your players in these tough games?
You grow stage by stage, but I’ve always retained this confidence. When we won two out of 10, I swear to you I didn’t lose any sleep.
It was difficult, but because we have a fantastic owner… I said to, maybe it’s time for me to offer my resignation again which was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But when you know you’ve got an owner’s support in terms of he really believes in what you’re doing as a culture, it allows you to make the right decisions for the short term because we want to be successful, but also medium to long term.
People are forgetting how young our team is out there. They (Sheffield Wednesday) are a team of men, a group of men who are paid an awful lot more than our players, but our player will come on so much for that experience.
The future is bright for the Gas and we keep building. When I came here, it was to create special memories and take these fans on an incredible journey and inch by inch, brick by brick, we’re starting to do that.
Derby on Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth – they are great occasions and occasions we want to be involved in and long may it continue.
Is that James Tarkowski over there?
Big Tarky, we've just signed him. He played with me, actually. I know he's an England international and he's at Everton, but he was telling people he played with me. I was a good player back in the day.
He and Shorty have retained that connection from Burnley. He's a good lad, big Tarks, and in a couple of years, we'll get him down the Mem, hey?
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