Head coach Scott Brown spoke to the media on Thursday afternoon ahead of his side’s long-trip down south to face promotion chasing Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
Town have been in high spirits so far this month as they head into the tough clash against Argyle as an unbeaten side throughout the month of February after beating Sheffield Wednesday in the Emirates FA Cup, as well as Charlton Athletic and Peterborough United in the league after that.
Here’s what the gaffer said in his per-match interview:
On what to expect from Plymouth…
“We need to make sure we keep going as we’ve won two league games in a row and we want to push further up the league as we’re currently in 17th place. It will be a hard task on Saturday because Steven [Schumacher] has got them playing well as there’s a reason why they are fighting for the automatic promotion spots this season.
“Their home form is extremely good and it always going to be a hard place to go, especially when you’ve got a long trip ahead of you. We got one over them very early on in the season and were even looking at some of the same players them in the window – we know that it’s a great stadium which will be full of a very supportive fan base, but we’re going to give everything down there.
“The lads want to dig deep and win games, as you saw in the Burton game, it was the worst I’ve seen us play since I got here, and the lads had to take responsibility of the performance. Small decisions make those games and we’ve made changes since then to amend those and those have led to good offensive and defensive performances both away and at home"
On how the squad is looking for the weekend…
“It’ll be a solid seven to eight hours travelling for us, but the lads are looking up for it and are all fit as well. I know there was a few niggles at the weekend, Promise [Omochere] had to come off at half-time and Harvey [Macadam] felt his calf, but both of them will be in the travelling squad – we’ve got 24 hours to make a decision on both of them, but they will both be with us on trip down.
“The squad is looking good at the moment, Danny Andrew is pushing to be back as well which is ideal and so is Josh Earl. I don’t think Josh will travel as he may need an extra couple of days and Danny will be touch-and-go in terms of travelling with us. He’s trained the last couple of days so we’re hoping to have another option at left-back in Plymouth as well.”
On the Peterborough win on Tuesday night…
“It’s fantastic for the confidence of the players; even when we went in to half-time 1-0 up against Peterborough, I asked them to keep the clean sheet in the second half and it looked like they were enjoying the defending. I know we had to change formation late on, and it’s not like us to go to a back five, as we are more suited to a four at the back formation.
“The home form hasn’t been anywhere near as good as it should have been, but I’ve got to give the lads credit as we came into the game knowing that the form had to change. They went out there and, even though it probably wasn’t our best performance due to us sitting behind the ball a lot and having to look for counter opportunities, and I thought we did what we needed to very well.
“We were ruthless with Phoenix [Patterson]’s delivery and with Promise [Omochere] being in the right position at the right time to score at the back post. For me, I’m glad to have these two additions to the squad because it’s given us a little bit of strength in depth in the wide areas.”