Fleetwood Town Manager Lee Johnson has previewed this weekend's Sky Bet League clash against Lincoln City with the local media down at Poolfoot Farm.
Following the postponement of the Port Vale match last weekend due to the international break, the gaffer has had a full week on the training ground with his players ahead of this league clash at Highbury.
Johnson and his side will be wanting to put things right this time round after suffering a heavy home defeat to Wycombe Wanderers in the last league match on the Fylde Coast.
Here’s what Lee Johnson had to say in his pre-match press conference:
On the break…
“This week has been really valuable to us, and I think there has been shoots of improvement over the course of the last few games and we’ve picked up some points in games. We are consistently repeating the key messages to the players in training or in the analysis room and I have to say, the lads have been brilliant.
“What has been great to see is we’ve had a full squad training with us, it has meant the medical team could have a little holiday and touch wood it stays that way. This week we’ve had Shaun Rooney back, who played against Wigan. We’ve also got Monty [Adam Montgomery], Brendan Wiredu and also Harvey Macadam and with those we’ve had 24 outfield players training today and that can be difficult to manage.
“With that though, it allows me to get into the nitty gritty of the individuals and start to be formulating the right formula for us to keep winning consistently. These are fully packed days with training and analysis. This time allows me to get to know people and I have to say there are some interesting stories around this Club.”
On the process and home form…
“If you get the process right then the results will come but part of that process is the psych process and the Club are helping us out with a lot, even at a cost in terms of where we might situate away fans and how we go about creating the best environment for fans to get behind the team and also for the team to create an identity for the fans to notice and we are at the very early stages.
“This can turn quickly, but we’ve got to embrace it. We’ve got to recognise it and we’ve got to be able to adapt to make improvement and if we don’t, we will get madness. These things we’ve look at in-house and the first 25 minutes in games are important to us and the fans are our extra man and if they get behind us, it will help us going forward.”
On Lincoln City this weekend…
“I don’t like manager changes as I know there are many variables that can happen in football, and I must say Mark seemed to be doing a decent job at Lincoln. I have watched a few of their games and they seem to have had some misfortunes with injuries.
“For us, it’s a bit like an unknown realm if you like to how the opposition will line-up due to their managerial change. Therefore, we need to turn the dial and make sure the focus is more on us than Lincoln.
“The lads have to be tactically agile at all times and that’s something we’ve been working on. Let’s take Junior [Quitirna] for example because he’s a fantastic player, but he doesn’t have the pedigree due to not coming from an Academy setup for a long time but he’s learning on the job because we know the player who he can be. We are going at this game from a positive of strength as we have much more options than when I first came into the club.”