Head Coach Simon Grayson spoke to the media ahead of his side’s Sky Bet League One clash against Cheltenham Town at Highbury on Saturday.
The Cods have been on the road for the last three fixtures, with one of those being a Carabao Cup tie and the other two being league fixtures, and Grayson is hoping to kickstart the side’s season this weekend against the recently promoted side as they are back at home in front of the Cod Army.
Here’s what he said in his pre-match press conference:
On Cheltenham Town…
“Michael Duff has done a great job down there getting the team promoted. When you get promoted, you start the season with a bit of momentum, which they have done, and have since had a brilliant result against Ipswich [Town].
“They’ve got a good style of play that they like playing, and the majority of the group went with them through the League Two stages and know exactly what they are doing so they are well drilled and well organised.
“They will be full of confidence after beating one of the favourites for the division in Ipswich. We respect everything that they can do, and we’ve got to make sure that we keep our focus and keep doing what we’ve been doing well and, hopefully, Saturday is a starting point for our season."
On the recent form…
“You could have repeated the same post-match summary after every match so far because we’ve been good in the games and played some good football but have lost by the odd goal. It’s been tough to take, I said after the game on Tuesday that in all my time as a manager, I’ve never been at a club where you could have won all four games but come away with four losses.
“You can go through runs where you’ve lost games and thought ‘we deserved to lose that one’ but we could be talking now with all nine points and a spot in the second round of the Carabao Cup. Unfortunately, the football gods haven’t allowed us to do that as everything you want to happen hasn’t quite happened for us.
“We realise that we’ve got to cut out the odd mistake we are making and be more ruthless up at the top end of the pitch when we are getting chances. We need to work hard, as we would do whether we’ve been winning, losing, or drawing.
“Hopefully something will change quickly, even if it has to come off someone’s backside and goes in to win one-nil in a scrappy game which could get the season up and running. The big thing is that there is a genuine belief within the group that they are playing well, and wins aren’t far away.”