Head Coach Simon Grayson spoke to the media ahead of Fleetwood Town’s league clash against Charlton Athletic on Thursday afternoon at Poolfoot Farm.
Grayson, and his side, are heading into the game at Highbury on the back of a narrow loss to Plymouth and will be looking to replicate their form from the last home game, which was a 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers.
Here’s what Simon had to say in his pre-match press conference:
On Saturday’s opponents…
“They are looking to get promotion and they a couple of positions outside the play-offs at this time. That is the nature of our division, it’s really tight and anyone can beat anyone in any particular game. They have some good players but will be without [Chuks] Aneke at the weekend, who I think is a handful.
“There is a good spirit in the group, and they are good players, technically. They can play in a different manner when required. The pleasing thing is that the players have taken on board what we want to do very quickly and have been receptive to what we have put to them.
“We are improving in all areas and will look to leave an impact on Charlton on Saturday. We respect them, we will look at them, we analyse the work that they have done, and it will be about what we can do. We will keep improving on what our performances have been like over the last three games.”
On the younger players…
“We’ve had a decent couple of days of training and the Under 23s played at Rochdale, which gave me an opportunity to have a look at some of the younger players. I’m impressed with what is coming through the system, which is a good pathway for the players to have to knock on the manager's door to try and get into the first team.
“They are all back on the grass today, so I think we’ve had a good week to work on things we need to improve on. They all know that if they are good enough, it doesn’t matter how old they are as they will get into the first team. I’ve proved at the other clubs that I’ve managed that I want to give them those opportunities.
“When you have facilities as we have, you have to have pathways to get into the first-team. That’s been the case, especially this season, with the likes of James Hill, Shayden Morris, Harrison Holgate, and even Ryan Rydel, have all featured around the first team. Even though the ones who played on Wednesday aren’t so close to the first team, they had an opportunity to impress.”
Watch Simon’s interview on our iFollow HERE.