Joey, a rare fixture-free midweek for you. With the form you are in, is that a good or a bad thing?
We’ll find out at 5.30pm on Saturday. For us, it gives us an opportunity to get a little bit of freshness back in the players. They have obviously come off the back of a tough run of games in the schedule, but with the results profile, we’re really pleased with the work done to this point.
It sets us up going into the business end of the season with some big games and it all to play for.
Your hands are a little bit tied with international call-ups, so going unchanged again might not be possible, but a nice problem to have with players away on international duty?
It’s something you’ve got to navigate and a thing that goes hand in hand with the team doing well is lads can get called up for their countries. We’re always pleased when that happens and, hopefully, it gives us minimal disruption and it doesn’t affect the matchday squad for Saturday and we can continue our upward momentum.
Have you ever known anything like it at this stage of the season with how tight it is with the League Two table?
It seems every division when you look through, whether it’s the Championship or the race for the Champions League places in the Premier League. League One at the top and bottom looks quite contested.
In our division, three or four points separate second to 10th. It’s all to play for and it looks like everybody has got to play each other at some point in the run-in. There are some double-headers in there and some teams that haven’t played us in this part of the season.
We’re in the mix with eight to go and we’re confident. We’ve got an exciting end to the season should we continue recent form improvement and recent performance.
Carlisle next up. Despite their league position, they’re in good form themselves. What sort of a game are you expecting from them?
They’ve done well. They’ve won four of their last five and it’s given them a bit of breathing space in terms of the trap door and going out of the Football League. I’m imagining everyone at the club will be pleased with that.
New manager in Paul (Simpson) has gone in and settled everybody down and results breed confidence. No doubt, they’ll be looking forward to the game on Saturday, but again they are a team at the opposite end of the table from us, a team that we have played early on in the season and beat 3-0 on that occasion.
We have to see we have markedly improved since those days and, no doubt, Carlisle have, so it sets it up for a tough game, but a game we feel if we execute and we play at the level we can, I think we have shown in recent weeks and months we’re more than a match for anybody in the division.
Carlisle are in form, we’re in form and, hopefully, that sets it up for a nice, attacking game of football.
When you have a player who is returning to face his old club as you have in Nick Anderton, do you think you can gain anything from that?
No, I spoke to Nick this morning and he knows one or two of their lads, but I think pleasantries and your former club kind of go out the window. Once the game has finished, knowing how good of a person he is and a player he was for Carlisle – he was captain in his time there – no doubt there will be a lot of affection for Nick.
I don’t think he did enough for the club to get a statue built, albeit if you speak to Nick he’ll think he has and he’ll be awaiting the erection of that. He might be waiting a long time…
But he’s a superb lad and I expect him to be welcomed and applauded by the Carlisle fans because he really does give you 100 per cent in games and, no doubt, the Carlisle faithful would have respected that out of Nick.
But professional heads are on, we’ve got a game to win. Friends, family and acquaintances go out of the window until the match is finished and then they can do what they want to do.
You’ve had a few these long trips, but does it change your preparation for the game in any way?
Not really, no. It just means you have to adjust training slightly just to make it work conductively with the travel up to Carlisle, but we’re looking forward to another test on the road.
Another tough place to go and they’ve improved in recent weeks.
The sun’s out, the grass is growing, the pitches are getting better – well, certainly ours are – and we’re looking forward to a good game of football.
Finally, Joey, will it be lasagne as the pre-match meal for the squad and management, too, with the owner’s new-found superstition?
No, the lads will carry on as they have been and, hopefully, the owner will carry on as he has been. It seems to have been a superstition of his, but if it’s working hopefully he is sick to death of lasagne by the end of the season.
Afternoon, Joey. Has Elliot Anderson gone away with Scotland and headed off for their games?
No, he’s still here.
I haven’t had any conversations, I think that’s for Newcastle and young Elliot. He’s had a couple of conversations with them and he’s here today and has been here training.
He hasn’t gone away with them, which is good news for us. Losing him would have been a big blow due to his form and how well he has done for us. That is a real positive.
I’m not sure of the nature of that or whether he’s hanging out to see if Brazil or Argentina or someone else come up, I’m not sure, or whether he’s had an agreement with Scotland, young Elliot.
All I know is he is here and available for us on Saturday and we’re delighted with that.
Are you training somewhere en route tomorrow as it’s such a long journey, or are you going to train at The Quarters and then travel up?
No, we’ll train on our pitches. They’re superb and we like to control it end to end.
Sometimes, there is the odd occasion where you do that but in the vein of form we’re in, it will just lead to us starting a bit earlier but it’s less disruption, so we’ve decided to do that this time and control it end to end.
I imagine these long journeys are made less arduous when you’ve got such a tight group. You could see it on the pitch on Saturday, the bond they have together, and travelling up and down the country probably only brings them closer?
They’ve done 38 games now and we’ve kept the majority of the squad. There were a couple of additions in January but the lads have taken on the workload.
As you can see, and I know results definitely improve team spirit and camaraderie, but they’ve been really close all year. It’s been a really tight-knit group from the first day of pre-season and I think the period we went through was tough and we were struggling for results and all different manner of players have gone in and out of form at different stages.
We do feel like we’re a really close-knit group on and off the pitch and also in terms of the match-winning performances, I also think they have been shared right throughout the team.
I think the good thing here is everybody feels valued, everybody feels like they have contributed at some point over the season and lots are still wanting to contribute more. Some lads are desperate to play their part between now and the season’s end.
A nice message received from Peter Shilton. Is he someone that you’ve come across in the past? Is he a friend or was that out of the blue?
I heard about it today. I don’t know Pete. Obviously, the first World Cup I can remember watching was Italia 90, so I know who Peter Shilton is, a successful England goalkeeper.
I don’t know where it came from but it’s part of football. It doesn’t give us any extra points but it’s nice from an England cap-holder.
But for me, it’s about making sure we win the game on Saturday and making sure we reach our levels of performance.
It’s nice when people outside recognise the progress that’s made, but for me it’s focusing on improving and getting better.
Will you have Sam Nicholson and Jon Nolan available on Saturday?
Both trained today. Hopefully, all being well tomorrow, they will come back into contention.
Is Josh Grant going to feature at all between now and the end of the season?
Josh was back on the grass today. He’s not back in with the group fully, but he’s getting closer.
He’s itching, chomping at the bit, but he’s done the hard bit now and it’s about getting that return to play checked off.
Hopefully, between now and the end of the season, he can come and make an impact because he’s such a big player for us.
He has been frustrated in recent weeks and we’re desperate to get him back in the squad.
Alex Rodman? Obviously, his season has been wrecked by injury. Is he going to get back?
He’s struggling again. We’re policing him through the early stages but he isn’t back with the lads on the grass right now.
The games counter is ticking and it’s a shame. He’s a great lad, Rodders, and he’s been a good player. Even in my short time here, he has been a really important player, but he hasn’t managed to have a little bit of luck with injuries.
We hope it changes, but as of yet, there is no return date to play for him.
Finally from me, Carlisle... That was a relatively comfortable win from what I remember. How have they changed since then? Is it just a new manager bounce with a club legend back at the club and there is more energy about them, or are you seeing tactical upgrades that they have made?
They’ve changed shape. I think they’ve gone to a back five. When we played them they were 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 at times. They have switched recently to a 5-3-2 and it’s been productive for them, it’s definitely given them more of an offensive threat.
To win four out of the last five in the predicament they were in says that we’re going to face an in-form side and a side that’s had the effect of a new manager bounce.
As you rightly point out, it is a club legend going back and Paul (Simpson) is someone who has coached for a number of years, so we know they will be competitive and it will be a tough fixture.
As League Two has shown us all season, you have to turn up and be absolutely bang at it. If you’re not, you get disappointing performances and disappointing results, so for us, we will be absolutely aware of Carlisle’s threats and their recent upturn in form, but a lot of our focus will be on us and executing because we feel if we do that, we can cause lots of teams problems.
Joey, with the midweek fixtures cleared and none left for you now, some teams are playing catch-up. How much attention do you pay to that? Are you the kind of manager to go and watch the opposition on a Tuesday, or will you sit back and focus on yourself?
For me, we’ve got to take care of our own points total and get maximum points out of the games we can.
You obviously look around to see other results and how they go. You’re at the stage when teams in and around you are playing each other and you’re looking for the draw.
You’re always looking at the results. I don’t really put too much energy into it because you can’t control it, but you’re always aware of it. You see Newport lose at the weekend and we realise winning at Northampton could be even more valuable.
Port Vale and Exeter drew in the week and I don’t think we’ll be the only side in the top 10 who were happy with them drawing. On the other side of that, Mansfield get a late winner at Rochdale.
We obviously have people at the games watching them, but it’s more looking at players and what the opposition system might be as opposed to willing somebody to get a result.
At the end of the day, we’ve got to take care of our own business.
Lasagne has been on the menu for the owner, but what is the hunger driving your team?
We’ve just eaten and it’s not too bad at the minute, but we’ve not got any hunger. Kelly, our chef, is superb and we haven’t got any hunger, but I’m hoping at 3pm on Saturday the lads are absolutely starving and have that desire to take maximum points.
We’ve had a weird old season. We were slow out of the gates, to put it mildly, and we’ve driven a momentum wave since.
For us, it’s very much business as usual. We’ve got to turn up, be prepared to pay the rent on what’s required to turn out a positive performance and result and be ready to back each other up in every single department. That’s a recipe that’s worked for us before and it’s a case of turning up and executing at a tough place in the form table but a place where we are confident we can take maximum points.
Elliot being available for selection is a big boost as well. This week, he was being compared to Peter Beardsley and Gazza. It seems like he’s no longer the best-kept secret in League Two, and it seems he is coping with that pressure.
Yeah, I don’t think he’ll miss a stride due to his constitution. He’s not somebody who’ll be affected by that. When you’re a good player, you expect people to say nice things to you and confirm to yourself via the media that you’re a good player.
The comparisons are always nice. When you’re getting compared to elite-level players he has been, that can do nothing but good for the young lad’s confidence, but he’s got to make himself into an Elliot Anderson. He’s got to show just what a skill set he has and hopefully one day, there will be a 19-year-old who is being compared to Elliot Anderson by some old washed-up footballer who is managing a football team.
Lastly, you’ve had so much success with loan players and you’ve had players go on to non-league. At this stage of the season, do you look at the players who will return the summer and have you tracked the progress of someone like Ollie Hulbert at Gloucester City, or are you just focused on the first team at the moment?
You’re monitoring everything at all times. Obviously, lads who go out on loan, you always monitor them and the progression they’re making.
The lads who have trained with us on a regular basis have a bit more exposure to you so you have a little bit more of an interest in them day to day compared to the lads who don’t train with us, although, as I say, you are monitoring them.
For us, we’ve got eight games to go this season, potentially more, and we have to make sure we get the absolute maximum out of the group.
Once the dust settles on the season, you’re already running succession models with people out of contract and that’s not just us as a football club, that’s 91 others. You’re always planning for pre-season and next season’s squad beyond that.
We’re in the midst of an exciting part of our season. Lads have worked hard for it and we want to go finish this off in style.
We are trying to tie people down to contracts and succession plan for pre-season and next season, but the absolute focus of the first-team arm of Rovers is on maximum points and staying as high as we can in the table.
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