Fleetwood Town head coach John Sheridan gives his thoughts on Tuesday night’s match against Rochdale.
Sheridan will take charge of his fourth match for the Cod Army on Tuesday, when Fleetwood travel to the Crown Oil Arena to face Rochdale.
Below are the key points from his pre-match press conference…
On team news…
“Everyone is fit and available, think they’re all wanting to play, so that’s a good sign.
“It’s important that everyone stays fit. Unfortunately for me I can only pick 11 and they all want to play - they’re all training at a good standard.”
On the balance of the squad…
“I’m comfortable with the squad at the moment, we’ve only got 10 games to go so, I’ve got to be focused and try and pick the best team I can from what I’ve got available.
“We’ve got some good players in the team, they all want to be playing, so that’s good for the manager, it gives me a problem. I just want them to feel like they’re a part of it and when needed they’re going to be ready.”
On the performances so far since his arrival…
“If I’m looking at the three performances while I’ve been here, I’m confident we’ll stay up.
“Unfortunately we’ve drawn the three games. I feel we should have a lot more points than what we have but I’m very pleased with the performances, we deserved more.”
On the clean sheet against Charlton…
“Yeah it’s a big plus, it’s this first since January so it’s a big plus, as a team it’s not just about a back four, they all worked really hard to get something out of the game.
“I’ve made it clear that I want us to try and attack and score goals but at the same time it’s a good habit to keep clean sheets, it was a good point, could be a valuable point in the end.”
On Rochdale…
“They’re a good team. I get on well with Keith [Hill] and I’ve always liked the way he gets his team playing. They have some good young players and he gives those youngsters a chance as well.
“I’m very surprised they’ve ended up near the bottom but they’re there for a reason.
“We’ve got to go there and make sure we compete, because if we let them play, I think they are actually one of the best teams in the league on their day. We’re confident in ourselves, we’re unbeaten in three, so that’s the way I’ve looked at it since I’ve come in. I’m pleased with the way things are going and it’s just about that next game.”
On the upcoming games…
“I want us going in to this week thinking we’re going to pick six points up, we’ve got to think like that. Games are running out, you’re playing two teams that are around us you can get a little bit of an advantage on people and that’s what we’re looking at.
“We’re going to try and win tomorrow and then we’ve got an even bigger game on Saturday but I can actually see it going all the way, there’s too many teams involved.
“Teams in the bottom four are winning, teams out of the bottom four are drawing or losing and everything’s just getting very tight so we’ve just got to look after ourselves.”