Head coach Scott Brown spoke to the club this week and previewed his side’s final friendly of the summer against Grimsby Town, which will take place at Highbury on Saturday.
Town have had back-to-back positive results in pre-season recently as they’ve faced off against tough opposition from the league above in Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End and have come away with two draws and just as many clean sheets over the last week.
This time around, the Cods will be shaping up against a side from the league below in the Mariners as they look to end their friendly schedule with a win before heading into the game against Carlisle United at the start of August, which kicks off the Sky Bet League One campaign.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say after Tuesday’s result:
On facing Grimsby Town at the weekend…
“It will be the last friendly before we start the new season off so we will go quite strong there again, but take nothing away from them, it’s been a good summer for those young lads who have been around the first-team squad throughout pre-season. The younger ones have seen what is expected of them whether that be in training, around the building, or in matchday scenarios.
“They’ve also seen the standards that they set on a daily basis, whether that be from [Josh] Vela, the captain, or any of the other lads as it bleeds down from the top. Pre-season has been good for us and, as I’ve said in previous interviews, it’s never been about results for us – those start next Saturday when we play Carlisle away.”
On having multiple forms of attack in the side…
“We’ve got to mix and match our attack as we can’t rely on the same people all the time, especially when we play Tuesday-Saturday, you have to freshen things up. It was good to see different bodies getting into different positions as we’ve managed to see the lads get out of their comfort zones as well.
“You can see with Maleace [Asamoah] and [Cian] Hayes playing wither further up the field or as wing-backs – it’s good to see that they’ve got that understanding of the game to play in both positions – Maleace was unlucky with his overhead kick at the end. It was good to see [Shaun] Rooney come back into the side as well.
“Sam [Glenfield] even managed to get on the ball and play forwards when he could, he’s got great energy and wants to drive on from the midfield. He’s just trying to understand that role at the moment as he was a striker, but we feel he’s better suited as a midfielder – he’ll get there.”