Joey it may have been a bit of a slow start but it was a quality middle and you got the job done, what did you make of it?
It was a bit like the Mansfield game. The wind was going towards one end. Whichever team got the wind it was going to be difficult to exit out of your half and they got the wind of the kick off.
We had to be mindful that they were going to take our crowd away from us. They were going to slow the game down and obviously they had the element. So it was going to be really difficult for the lads.
We were probably a little bit guilty of over-playing in the first bit. Towards the middle of the half we turned them round a little bit more and got some good platforms.
We managed to get a goal. A real quality finish from Aaron and then I think we settled into the game. We scored again not long after with a superb individual goal from young Elliot.
We challenged the lads at half-time to take advantage of the elements and make sure we get that next goal to make the second half a lot easier than maybe how we have done in recent weeks and months.
I’m really pleased. I thought it was a really professional performance. If I’ve got a nit pick, we should have scored a couple more.
I was just going to say it’s so tight in that division it could come down to goal difference. Was today an opportunity that you might have been able to push and get a fourth or fifth?
I’d have taken one. You’ve just got to win the game. Ten to go for us. Lots of twists and turns. Every three points you get is going to be massive in the championship rounds in this run-in.
So, it’s nice to get the extra couple of goals. It boosts our goal difference up to +9 now. so , we’ve got ourselves in the positive in that regard. But again between now and the seasons end it could come down to that.
So if you do get opportunities you must be ruthless and capitalise on it. I’m really pleased for Belly. That’s two clean sheets against Harrogate.
I’m hoping to catch Simon in my room for a beer in a minute and ask him what he was thinking getting rid of Belly. We got the best goalie probably in the division for free.
I can’t fathom it. I’ve asked Belly, ‘what was that about’? He got told that he wanted a keeper with more experience. So, someone else’s loss is our gain and we are delighted to have him.
He’s been absolutely superb. Today was probably one of his quieter games, but if you look at his performances over the season, he’s been a real star player in our team. As I say, if Simon didn’t regret it after the first game, he certainly must regret it now.
I suppose as managers there are moments where you can make those decisions. I’m only four years in and I haven’t made one of those yet and I hope never to make one.
Sometimes a game needs a bit of quality and whether it’s Aaron Collins or Elliot Anderson or Antony Evans, you’ve got those sorts of players that can lift a game and you needed it today.
We have to give Harrogate credit. They played the conditions really well. You could see the game plan, it was relatively straightforward to see.
They were trying to turn us around and get us into the backside of the team. In the early skirmishes they caused us some problems because we couldn’t exit our final third and that led to a little bit of a pressure wave coming.
There was a few hair harum-scarum moments without there being anything where I though they should have scored. When we scored that goal, I felt we really settled and it took that anxiousness and nervousness out of everybody.
Then the lads really kicked on from there. As i say, at half time we really challenged them to get the next goal, which we did relatively early. Then i thought we controlled the game really well.
We got breathers into Couttsy and Sam Finley who’s on nine bookings, so we managed to manage the squad through the seven weeks of Saturday-Tuesday. We have to go Tuesday again, but we’re as fit as anybody in the division.
We’ve prepared superbly since pre-season. The lads have put it in. They’ve really worked their socks off and they’re getting rewarded for it now.
Everybody else seems to be creaking and dropping points and the Gas are coming.
Your 'League Two Lewandowski' couldn’t quite get his hat-trick but he almost did. Elliot Anderson turns up with a cracking goal as well. How do you pick your favourite from that lot?
As long as they go in, I’ll take it. Like a Nick Anderton 'Shiniesta' against Harrogate. I’ll take them as long as they go in the back of the net I don’t care.
I went back after the Crawley game Tuesday. Wednesday for me is my opportunity to watch our games back. I ended up sitting and watching the Champions League games because that’s where I want to be, so they’re the people you have to watch.
I was struck by how Bayern played in the first period. Salzburg played a 4-2-2-2 which was similar to the way Newport played against us and Lewandowski really caught my eye.
So I was texting Azza back and forth all day Wednesday telling him to watch that game. Make sure you watch Lewandowski’s movement. There’s some things he does which are just Lewandowksi, but there’s 85 per cent of that you could do, that naturally you do quite well.
He’s scoring goals, but I’m saying to him he should be having match balls because he’s having enough chances in games to be taking match balls home. How many has he got?
If he hasn’t got any shelves in his house, I’ll buy him some so he can put his match balls up. Sam Finley has played one hell of a ball over the top and it was there for the perfect hat-trick. Thatchers end. On the volley. Great assist for Sam, but for some reason he tries to bring it down.
He’s doing great at the minute and I’m so pleased for him because he had a tough opening gambit here. Him and Nick Anderton. Certainly in the second half, I thought Nick Anderton was superb.
They’re really growing into the Rovers shirt and showing the fans just what good players they are. It’s great to see young players full of confidence.
People will be talking about the type of goals today. But when I saw their team warming up and I thought those two big lads up front might just bully your two centre backs, but those two lads don’t get bullied do they? You might think they would by looking at them but they don’t.
For two young men, they both play way beyond their years. You wouldn’t think their both 20 and their partnership is growing game-on-game. So I’m just really pleased.
They’re both loan lads. Obviously, we’ve got our own right back with Hooley and then Nick on the other side and they’ve really become men in recent weeks.
League Two for me is a good way to learn your craft because if you make a mistake it maybe doesn’t get amplified as it does if you play further up the pyramid. But also, for a young centre-half it is a really physical league because of some of the challenges that you get which are quite industrious, and you wouldn’t probably get them in League One or the Championship.
Games are refereed a little bit differently and there’s not better breathing ground. If they can deal with the physicality that is being brought their way every single week, on top of the footballing quality, I think as they progress up the pyramid, which no doubt those two boys are capable of doing. I think they’ll really start to develop.
Twenty for a centre-half, that’s young for that position and as I say the two of them are growing week by week.
They’re developing a really nice partnership and it’s given us a defensive platform to build a good side off.
For a lot of the season it seemed the play-offs would be a tough ask for you...
I never said that. I remember being at Exeter and all the gifs. It wasn’t that far in and I remember speaking to you at Barrow. I could see all of you looking back at me as if I was insane. You probably wanted me to get put in a straight jacket and carted off to Broadmoor.
Now you’re two points off third, do you consider yourself good automatic promotion contenders?
We’ve got 10 to go. We’re right in the race. I won’t bore you all with the old adage and all the cliches. But we’ve just got to pay our dues Tuesday night.
We’ve got to rest, recover and go again. Colchester had a good win today and at the stage we’re at you’ve just got to focus on your business. The only thing we can control is the next cup final.
I spoke to the lads and this is a cup final. We’ve just got to go and win this cup game. We managed to do that today and we managed to do that at Crawley on Tuesday.
We’ve been playing high stakes high pressure football for a long period because we had a slow start and we’ve had to play catch up. Honestly, the best thing about this is that nobody in our dressing room is getting carried away. Absolutely no player is getting carried away.
And the fact that we sit where we sit in the table, it’s all bunching together and closing back up. Forest Green haven’t won in six. They’ve historically towards the back-end of the season struggled to capitalise on a good league position.
I think there’s still so much to play for. There’s teams with games in hand and they’ve all got to play each other. Forest Green have to play Mansfield twice.
I think we’ve got five at home and five away. We’ve got to be as good as we’ve been at home in recent weeks and months and we’ve got to keep picking up whatever we can pick up away from home.
If we can win, fantastic. We’ve got 10 to go and as I say, I wouldn’t swap with anybody and that includes Forest Green month.
Last month, I said I wouldn’t swap with anybody except Forest Green, but now I wouldn’t swap with anybody including Forest Green.
How important is momentum?
It’s huge. In football it is everything. In football honestly it is absolutely everything and we’ve got it. We must work really hard to maintain it because if you get complacent or sloppy, you can lose it as quickly as you’ve gained it.
I think our lads are well-versed and they’re ready to go. The key for me is because we’ve done everything right. We ate right. We’ve trained right. We’ve slept right and we’ve travelled right. Nobody will be in better shape than us in this last period.
At the very best, they can be as good as us, but nobody will be in better shape than us. We’ve got a better squad and the depth of the squad is as good as anybody’s. The lads are trained and primed.
We’ve got Clarkey and a few lads coming back to it next week. It’s going to be tough to stop us, for anybody. We might get promoted. We might be in the playoffs. But again i wouldn’t swap with anybody, especially with our following.
There’s not many teams who’ve got the following we do. So if it’s play play-offs and Wembley, we’ll see 40,000 tickets. There’s not many other teams in the division that could do that, if any.
So we don’t want to do that, because I fancy going and seeing my missus and kids a lot earlier, but again we’ve got lots of hard work in front of us and we’ve got to make sure that we’ve jockeyed into position and that we capitalise in the next ten games.
On current form and trajectory you’d be a fool to bet against us.
James Connolly, is he alright? He had to get some treatment.
He’s just had a couple of bangs. We’ve been going Saturday-Tuesday and Beefy (James Connolly) is one of those who has had to go for every moment of that.
There is a Saturday-Saturday coming. We can see the light at the end of that tunnel but as it stands, I’m not entirely sure we want it. We’re as fit as we can be.
If you’re going Saturday-Tuesday, you can imagine what that does to body fat composition and the players' fitness levels. Our fitness levels are probably as high as anybody’s in the division due to the schedule.
But also, like today, we’ve been able to give Sam Finley a 25 minute breather and Couttsy a 25 minute breather, because we had the game under control and we can use the squad to manage the second part of the second half out.
As I say, 10 games to go, five at home and five away. We’re right in the slot.
Anssi Jaakkola wasn’t on the bench today. You put Jed Ward back in after he’s come back from another loan. A problem with Anssi?
He rocked his ankle in training. They were just doing some crossing. It wasn’t with the playing group. They were doing their own goalkeeper weirdness that they do and he’s come in for a cross and he’s rolled his ankle and he stood Tony Warner the goalkeeper coaches hand.
Tony has got quite big hands and he’s stood on his hand and rolled his ankle, so he’s looking at a couple of weeks. Nothing major.
Jed has had three games to just to get some games up at Prescot Cables. I play golf with the guy who runs the tea, he said “I’m struggling for a goalkeeper, our goalie is suspended”. Jed had his loan cut short because of the situation.
When he went on loan their keeper was coming back. So we wanted him to play some more games. Jed went and played some more games and then came back into the group and Ans has picked up an injury.
So, Jed will deputise until Ans is fully fit again.
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