Joey, how much of you is looking forward to Sunday and how much of you is looking forward to Sunday and the season being over and you can start planning for next season?
There are always moving targets as a manager. One season doesn’t stop and the next one begins, they all kind of overlap and that’s just the way it is.
From our perspective, it’s important we finish well. We haven’t won in five or six, so we want to finish in our stadium in front of a sold-out Mem, which is superb, on a positive and send the Gasheads away with a spring in their step and excited about what’s to come next season.
It’s natural, once you’re safe and there is nothing to play for, that the season kind of peters out, but we need to make sure we give a great account of ourselves in front of our fans on Sunday.
In your mind, are you settled on who you want to be here next season? You mentioned the word audition two or three weeks ago, are you clearer in your mind who is part of your plans?
Yeah, absolutely, but we’ve got to finish the season strongly. I’ve told the lads they have been superb and I can’t fault them. They give everything they have got every week and sometimes it can be frustrating and they make little errors and mistakes that can amount to chances and goals going against your team, but it’s always from the right place with them.
They are a superb group and I can’t fault them this year. Yeah, we could have been better in moments, but it hasn’t been for a lack of effort or caring on the players’ behalf.
They care about the fanbase, they care about playing for the football club and I think you’ve seen in 45 games this season, whenever they pull on the quartered jersey they give it a right go and give it their best.
We all want to be perfect, but all you can as is they give it their all and our players this season have been superb.
It’s important we finish with a really good performance and, hopefully, a good result at our place on Sunday.
You’ve been picking a strong team week in, week out. Is there any experimentation in your mind? Luke McCormick still hasn’t had his opportunity, for example.
He’s struggling with his wisdom teeth. He probably needs them out so his season is done for me, that’s how I see it. We want to get a good pre-season into him.
I think he’s relieved he hasn’t suffered his third relegation, but this season hasn’t gone to plan. I’ve said to the lads that momentum and form are not things you can turn off and on.
Macca is one of those who is guilty of missing a pre-season. He had a problem getting out of the club he was at and he was sent with the under-23s and missed a big chunk of pre-season and it has cost him.
He hasn’t been able to hit the ground running and we want to get a core of our group for next season with us as early as we can. We want to get a lot of business done as early as we can so we can hit the ground running next season.
From our perspective, that includes losing some people as well. There is an organic cull to the group with loans going back and people being out of contract, and I think there are some lads who are in contract that this will probably be the stop for them, this will be the junction.
We’ve got to make sure when we come back here for the start of next season that the group is in a better place and we finish higher than we have done this season.
And for some of the loan players who have impressed, hopefully it is not a farewell on Sunday and they could be back next season?
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The lads have come in and fought for the jersey and given us lots of positives. All the lads who have come in on loan have been really good additions to our group and hopefully we can have a nice send-off for them in our stadium.
Bolton’s season is not over. What do you expect from them on Sunday?
They are a good side. We know from going up there earlier in the season that they are a good side.
I will pick as strong a team as I can. We will see where the bodies are.
You want to see where you are compared to those top chasing sides. We’ve done really well against the better teams, it’s the lump-it teams that we struggle against so we are going to have to change that next season.
Hopefully, we can cause Bolton some problems on Sunday. They’ve got one eye on what’s to come and we might just catch them but we’ve got to be at our best, certainly better than we were at the start of each half on Tuesday.
Joey, Harry Anderson wasn’t involved against Shrewsbury. Is there any update on him and his contract situation?
Harry is struggling again with his groin and he’s had a little bit of a setback. He was getting a scan and I will chat with the physio to see how he got on and I will have a chat with H.
He’s a bit down at the minute because he’s had no luck with injuries this season and it’s tricky for us to sign a player who is injured. We want players who are fit, robust and ready to go.
H has been a great servant here. We’ll sit and have a chat with him and his agent about the future and what he wants to do, but we will need to see his scan and what the prognosis is there.
Hopefully we get a bit of news on that soon and we can make a call, but he is probably going to be injured for the game on Sunday which is so disappointing for him because he is so keen to get in and show us that he’s fully fit, but it just hasn’t played out for him this season that way.
Has there been any movement with Josh Grant and his contract?
No, not yet. I will chat with Eddy (Jennings) and Tom (Gorringe) on that.
Josh is another one who had a bit of a groin issue and I think he is due to be back on the grass with the lads this week, so that will probably be Friday or Saturday.
We will have a chat with him and his agent and we’ll make a call. The problem is, you’ve got to find the right deal for the football club. We’ve got to protect the owner and the fans from having a lot of money tied up in a player who isn’t fully fit all the time.
Players in that category don’t want ‘we’ll pay you that much if you’re fit and, unfortunately, we’ll pay you this much if you’re not fit’. They always want guaranteed money.
Hopefully we can find a compromise and a deal with them because they are good lads and, when fit, they are really competent and good players.
It’s a decision for the CEO and the business aspect of the club and those players and their agents will want to find the right financial package.
I don’t think Grant Ward has had a bad game for you since he came in. I know you want to keep him so where are you with that one?
We’re chatting with them all. There is nothing finalised but the last week kind of accelerates that.
Some lads might go into the summer and you’re playing that kind of business game. It’s all good and well talking to me on a football aspect, but they all have their advisors and their career to look after.
It’s important we strike a deal. Those lads have been good citizens and good additions to our group and we’re hoping some of them will stay longer. In the next couple of weeks, we will solidify that.
Where are you in your Rovers journey, Joey? You’ve seen the club going down and on the up. This season has been a bit steadier. Is it a case of a little bit of time off and then being full of energy to come back and go again?
No, I’m going away golfing for a few days and then I’ve got to come back and start my pro licence out in Northern Ireland.
I’m just after getting better, I’m not happy with this season and I think we can be miles better. We’ve got to kick on and get better.
You don’t get an off-season, it doesn’t exist. You wish you did but the phone is going and you’re working from home. You get a little bit more down time to see the missus and kids, but you are filling half-term and holidays with meeting players and going down to the training ground to make sure things are moving on.
If we want to get better next year, the work starts the moment the final whistle is blown in the Bolton game. Work will start for the group next season and we’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be successful.
After the emotional high of last season, I imagine you are feeling a bit unfulfilled this year because you are not near that?
We all want that, don’t we? We’ve all been in the game long enough to know you have to earn that and it feels so good when you get it because it doesn’t happen every single season.
This season, because you’re not challenging, it can feel like a failure and I haven’t got any trophies or anything to put on the board and the history books, after this game, will write down the numbers and it’s not a season you will look back on, I imagine. But it’s a solid season.
With lessons learned?
I think so, you’re always learning and there is a lot we’ve learned this year. From our perspective, the club is truly in a better place than when I found it.
When I found it, it was about to go out of the division and it was in a negative slide. Getting promoted last year was a step in the right direction, but it was only an important step if we consolidated this year, which we’ve done.
But I’m not happy we’ve lost 20 games this year or something like that and some of the teams we’ve lost to and the way we’ve lost them are always going to drive you potty.
But you have to be mindful of all the good stuff that’s happened and the fact we haven’t looked over our shoulders, really, at any point this season. We’ve got a really young group and that could have been a helluva lot different.
The alternative to not fighting for promotion is you have got something to play for because you are fighting relegation, but I’ve been involved in a few of them and I’d much prefer to peter into mid-table obscurity because there is nothing worse. People lose their jobs and it can really set football clubs back when you do slip out of the division.
Yeah, we do want to get promoted and we’re optimistic and ambitious, but you can’t run before you can walk in this game and it’s an important junction for us because we’ve got to get better and kick on.
It’s my job to lead the group and we get the game out of the way on Sunday and we’re already on with next year anyway, but it really kicks into gear at about 2.45pm when you’ve had a beer and you start thinking about next year.
From our perspective, we won’t be resting on our laurels. I don’t want to be in League One for any amount of time. The quicker I can get out of it, the better, and I think I speak for every Gashead when I say that.
But there are some big clubs in here and we’re going to have to get better and in the midst of that, you’ve got to be careful you don’t regress. In the aim of trying to improve sometimes, you can lose some key components and get worse and we must ensure we don’t do that.
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