Head Coach Simon Grayson sat down at Poolfoot Farm to look back on the start of the season, the international break, and the fixtures coming up later this month.
Town have been on a good run over the last week, having beaten Cheltenham Town 3-2 and Leicester City 4-1 at Highbury Stadium, as well as picking up a crucial point after a long journey down south to Plymouth in the middle, but now the side have some time to rest due to their clash against Wigan Athletic being called off because of call-ups.
Here’s what Simon had to say:
On the start of the season…
“The lads have been good to work with as they have done everything, we’ve asked them to do and they started the season in a positive manner in terms of performances, just without the results. This week has been good as we’ve managed to beat Cheltenham, draw with Plymouth on the road, and beat Leicester in the cup.
“We could see the performances in the first four games. I’ve been in football for a long time, and you’ve seen games that you’ve lost and thought ‘I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this rut we’re on’ but we’ve constantly been having meetings with the staff and players saying we’re not far away from getting results.
“We aren’t getting too carried away with the recent results and we didn’t get too down when we weren’t picking up points at the start of the season because it’s all in the process of getting a new group together as we have to work on things to make us better day in, day out. We’ve been pleased with the attitude and application, and I think everybody has enjoyed the start to the season.”
On the transfer window…
“I think Deadline Day was the first day where we knew we weren’t going to do anything as we’d already got all of our business done. When Joe Garner got done on Sunday to Monday, a move which has been in the pipeline for some time, we knew we weren’t going to do anything. It was a nice, relaxed attitude for me, Andy [Pilley], and the CEO [Steve Curwood]. Overall, I think we’ve got a good group to work with until January or the end of the season.
“I think we’ve had a really good window, right from the summer months when we released the players that we did. We recruited knowing that we had X amount of money and a certain number of slots to fill and we’ve managed to get some experienced players coupled with the younger ones, who still have some experience under their belts, as well as the Academy players who have been coming through for some years.”