Head Coach Simon Grayson spoke to the press on Friday morning ahead of his side’s trip to the Keepmoat Stadium to face Doncaster Rovers in a Sky Bet League One clash.
Grayson will be looking to get back to winning ways as the side make the trip from Lancashire to Yorkshire and will be hoping to get on the right side of little moments in games that haven’t gone their way in the last two outings.
Here’s what Simon had to say in his pre-match press conference:
On the clash against Rovers…
“We want to get back to winning ways very quickly and Doncaster are a team that are above us in the table and we want to get the win so to close the gap to them in the table. We’ve still got four games to go to win as many as possible, and Doncaster will be thinking the same as well.
“We want to be hard to play against, making sure we don’t concede too many goals and win second balls, but ultimately, when we do get the ball, we don’t want to overturn possession too easily. We want the players to be comfortable in all areas of the pitch and, when you do get chances, make sure to put them in the back of the net.
“Anyone can beat anyone in this league. It’s the nature of this division – it’s relentless. It says it all that five out of the bottom six ended up winning this week, which doesn’t happen in many other divisions. Everyone can look at their peaks and troughs, it’s been a weird season, but we want to finish our season as positive as possible for ourselves.”
On the recent run…
“We don’t like losing football matches at any stage in the season and you can lose them in different manners. On Saturday, we didn’t deserve to lose as if the offside goal wasn’t disallowed, we would have gone on to win that game two-nil, without a shadow of a doubt because we’ve got a good strong defensive mentality.
“We were pleased on how we played. I thought we played well in the first half of the Crewe game and lost on fine margins. Kyle Vassell had a penalty saved and had a header that went straight at the goalkeeper. We had other close opportunities and it was just one of those nights that didn’t go for us.
“If the players had been playing poorly, questions would have been asked of them but that hasn’t happened. It’s easy to do at this stage in the season but our lads have been determined, have a good mentality and character. – it’s just the breaks have not gone our way that they have done in previous games.”
On recent transfer dealings…
“An offer came in for Ryan [Rydel] on Wednesday and we mentioned it to him, I wasn’t looking to let him go as I felt like he had a lot to prove to the team and could still get into the team. He’s played a few games, including Tuesday. It was all about what he wanted to do, and he wanted to go there on a long-term contract and play first-team football – credit to him.
“Harvey Saunders also went out to Hartlepool who are top of the National League at this time. Again, he’s had limited playing time and we asked him the question of whether he would like the chance for consistent first-team football and his answer was yes. You’ve got to be respectful and give them their opportunities. We wish them both well.”
Watch Simon’s interview on our iFollow HERE.