We’ll start off with team news, Joey. How is the squad going into Saturday’s game?
All good. A couple of knocks and niggles out of the load we’ve had in recent weeks, but the lads are in good orders and looking forward to another tough fixture on Saturday.
Presumably, people like Harvey Saunders and Luke Thomas are itching to get into your starting lineup, but while you’re winning matches it’s nice to name unchanged teams like you did on Tuesday night.
When you’re in such a good run of form, the team unfolds along that run and competition for jerseys right across the season has been very interesting to watch.
But as you’re getting into the closing stages and the final stretch now, the lads are making it very easy for team selection due to the results, performances and clean sheets, and long may that continue.
Josh Grant, Leon Clarke, Jon Nolan, are they any closer to a return?
Yeah, Leon is chomping at the bit and he’s desperate to be involved, so we’ll see how a few of them get through training tomorrow.
Josh is still not back with the group at this moment, so the weekend’s game will probably come a little too soon for him.
But if we can add Leon to the group, his goal threat and his experience gives us something different, certainly in that final third.
He’s been a big player for us when we’ve managed to get him on the pitch and I’m hoping to be able to do that a bit more regularly in the final part of the season.
You’ve spent the past few weeks climbing the league table looking to get into the top seven. Now you’re in the top seven, has the mentality changed at all?
Yeah, completely. We’re just going to down tools now and think we’ve done it.
Of course not. We know there are nine games to go and lots of teams are scrapping away and everybody in this division so far has been hugely competitive. Every match we’ve had since the campaign started.
I do feel it is setting up the league table for an exciting end for the neutral. From our perspective, we’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, keep turning up for each other.
There are going to be lots of twists and turns between now and the end of the season and we’ve just got to make sure in every match situation we take maximum points, just what the lads have been doing since the turn of the year.
How much significance is it that you’re playing a team second in the table on Saturday?
You get an opportunity to leapfrog or go level with teams who are very close in the table, but if you win on Saturday you’re not promoted, and equally, if you lose Saturday your season is not over.
It’s all to play for, but again for us, nothing changes. It is a top-end-of-the-table clash now. The table is so compact behind Forest Green, who are out in front and we’ve got to make sure we turn up and give a great account of ourselves.
If we do, that’s been enough to take points out of games, and if we don’t then we’ll get what we deserve, which will be nothing.
What are Northampton’s strengths? Good at set-pieces? Their defenders get lots of goals for them.
With (Mitch) Pinnock’s delivery and (Fraser) Horsfall and (Jon) Guthrie, they have that threat from the set-piece area, but they’ve also got a lot of competent players, a lot of good players in open play.
We’ve had a skirmish with them at our place. We managed to win that game having gone down to 10 men.
We played a back three in that game and there was different personnel and they will have different personnel. The boy who was playing for them at the time, the really good striker, (Kion) Etete, has moved on in the January market and they’ve replaced that.
They’ll know what we’re going to do, they’ll be well versed and it will be two sides that know each other really well as we get into this and it will be the team that handles the occasion and does the basics superbly on the day that will progress.
The teams are closely matched and we’re looking forward to it. A tough away fixture and one where we can grab a lot of momentum from should we win.
Have you had some fun on social media? Elliot Anderson being compared to Maradona, I think people took your comments not quite as intended on Tuesday night.
Yeah, that’s the world we live in at the moment.
He’s certainly a talented player; Diego Maradona is arguably the best player that’s ever played the game.
I get that they’ve got to get clickbait and they’ve got to repackage the truth in different ways, but I was keen to clarify that I was using Maradona in a slightly different context.
As the media do, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Sometimes as a manager, you want that extra one per cent advantage. I just wonder if your relationship with Newcastle probably got Elliot to the Mem. Is that something that could benefit Bristol Rovers in the future?
I don’t know. As a manager, it is relationships. We’ve got a fantastic relationship with Stoke City because of the work we’ve done with some of their players in the past and that opens the pathway to get access to Connor Taylor this season.
As a club, we want to build relationships with all the top clubs because they have the ability to stockpile some of the best talent in the country, if not in Europe and the world.
We’d be fools not to want to work with those guys, but you’ve also got to do a good job. You’ve got to send the players back developing in the manner they want their play to develop.
For us, getting a good reputation for developing younger players is key for me as a young coach. I want to work with the best talent in the world and to do that you’ve got to show during your apprenticeship that at every junction you get your hands on them, you develop them and they enjoy working for you and their game comes on leaps and bounds.
I think across the board in my tenure as a manager, we’ve given opportunities to younger players and we’ve been rewarded because they have been excellent when those opportunities have presented themselves.
For me, as I’ve said lots of times, age is just a number. It’s about desire, it’s about hunger and we’ve been really lucky with some of the boys we’ve got because lads who I’ve worked with, the Newcastle lads in Steve Harper and Shola (Ameobi). I’ve spent time with them in a dressing room as a player and they know my character. They know which players will work with me and which players maybe won’t.
At this moment in time, he’s been superb, Elliot, and I think Newcastle will be really pleased with his development and we’ve got to continue that between now and the end of the season.
Finally, what progress are you hoping the academy will make? Brian Dutton was appointed as academy manager today.
I’ve got enough problems on my plate with the first team to worry about the academy. They’re not on the same site as us and it’s not really my bag at this moment in time.
I’ll level with you, I’ve got absolutely nothing to do with it and I’ve needed not to have anything to do with it because I had my work cut out with the first-team department.
I imagine now as we go on and we get into the off-season and the focus becomes more about the football club, I imagine we’ll start to develop some of the processes, but as I say for me, if you don’t get the first team right, there is no point in anything else in the football club.
Everything should cascade down from the first team. You’ve got to get things right there and that gives every single department the chance to align itself to excellence, but if the first team is amateur and mediocre, there’s no point having an excellent academy because you’re going to waste any talent you get in there.
The club’s in a process of evolution and the first team is moving at a speed and we’re moving in the academy space, but I haven’t had my eyes on it. I don’t even know where they train.
I know some of the boys when they get sent over to us, but we were so busy firefighting and sorting the first team out that, unfortunately, we didn’t have a minute for the academy.
We will get back into that at some point, but at this moment in time, the priority is the first team from my perspective.
Tom (Gorringe), the CEO, etc, they’ll be developing the academy side of it.
Not the answer you want. I’ve seen the academy manager has been named today, but I haven’t had a moment between managing my family life and managing the football team. Unfortunately, you don’t get a second to dip into the academy.
Joey, good afternoon. You were just talking about Northampton’s set plays. Like them, you’ve got players who are dominant in the air and, like them, you’ve got excellent delivery. Could you be scoring more goals from set plays?
Yeah, once Connor Taylor learns to direct those headers on target, I think we’ll be alright. He’s had so many good chances over the season.
He really could be sitting with five or six goals and I think that is the next part of his development, putting the ball in the back of the net, because I think if you carry that threat as a defensive player it can be a huge benefit for the team.
The lads they’ve got, Horsfall and Guthrie, they’re a lot further down the track in terms of experience than our lads. Obviously, they’ve had a great goalscoring season for Northampton.
Pinnock’s delivery and the two lads being aggressive and a goalscoring threat has been a huge part of their arsenal, but also in open play, they’re a good side. They’re no mugs.
It looked like Ali Koiki came off early in the game last time out, so it seems he’ll be injured for them. I know Ali from his time here and he didn’t have the best run of injuries here and if he misses the game on Saturday, it looks like that is injury-enforced and that will be a positive for us because he and (Aaron) McGowan at full-back really create the width for Northampton, they are a real attacking threat.
The two lads peeling off the sides, they’ve got goalscoring threat in Hoskins in midfield, so they’re a really good side. We know we’ll have to be at our best in all departments, not just the set-piece area if we’re going to be successful on Saturday.
What are your recollections of going to Northampton last season? You went there at a similar time of the season in a game with similar stakes. It was a six-pointer at the other end of the table?
Jack Baldwin giving a goal away is my recollection of that. No offence to Jack, that’s just all I remember.
I thought it was a game we should have won. A scrappy game, we were in the ascendancy and then Jack, who had played well in the game, made a mistake and, last season, every mistake we made felt like it was getting punished.
I think that was the game where we realised if we had a chance (of staying up) it was dwindling in the midst of Northampton’s equaliser. I think it was like that for both of us. It was a game we were both desperate to win and neither wanted to draw and ultimately both of us lost our status in the division.
To be fair to them, they’ve been up near the top of the table all season. They managed to turn it around relatively quickly, whereas we’ve come up with a late spurt, a charge, which for me is the best way.
If you’re watching the horse races, you don’t want to be sitting there. As I said to you the other day, at Forest Green a few back passages will be twitching like a rabbit’s nose with what they’ve done previously. They’ve got to get over the line and they’re a good side but they’ve got to play Mansfield twice, they’ve got to come to the Mem and there is a long way to go.
Nine or 10 games to go in the division and points on the board, games in hand etc. I’ve been in this situation lots of times where people think ‘Oh, they’ve got loads of games in hand’. Teams seem to think they will win their games in hand. ‘We’ve got three games in hand, so that’s nine points’.
The reality is every point is fought for and earned in this division, so there is a long way to go, albeit we can see the end, but every single fixture needs focus and Saturday, for us, is a big game but it’s just a norm. We’ve had lots of big games in the past and I think we’ve got everything to gain.
We are the dark horses. If we get up this year, it will be an amazing story and achievement. If not, I still think we’ve got a lot of credibility because of the surge we’re on. We can’t lose.
We’re in a great position and we want to get the job done and who knows? Forest Green will start to feel the breath of the other teams. There was a point a while back where we were 20-odd points behind them and I think it’s nine now with a game against them.
The teams in and around us will probably be looking at them the same and thinking ‘If we can get within a couple of points, who knows?’
The title might still be available for the chasing pack and there are eight or nine teams who still could be ending up as champions. It’s Forest Green’s to lose due to the great first part of the season and second part of the season, even.
It’s setting League Two, it’s looking like the most exciting race for promotion and race for the title. Looking forward to it, we’re in the mix.
One of the glass ceilings left for you to smash through as a team is winning away at a promotion rival. Do you see that as an issue, or is it a case of getting the job done at home and getting draws away at those clubs? Is it something you have to change or can you get by?
It was that much of an issue that I didn’t even know we had not done that, so you can see how much of an issue it was for me.
For me, just win the next game. For us, whether we’re home or away, every point or victory at this moment in time carries such weight with it.
We’ve been superb this year and parts of last year at breaking these taboos and terrible records that have been in and around Rovers for the past few seasons.
As we get better and we progress, clearly we’re going to start knocking all these negative signposts off and, as you rightly point out there, to go to a side in the top seven and take a victory will be a huge marker post for the group.
But again, if we win on Saturday it doesn’t mean we’re promoted and there are lots of tough fixtures ahead.
The lads have been really good recently with a cup final mindset and paying every game the due courtesy it deserves and we’re not getting beyond the next 90 minutes or 45 minutes in front of us, which is a tough one but we’re full of confidence.
We’re looking forward to the challenge.
I didn’t hear Sam Nicholson’s name in the injury updates. Is he in contention or is he still not in the mix?
I don’t think so. He was back jogging around today and I’ve seen him, but he hasn’t joined back in with the group yet.
I don’t think he is earmarked to join back in with the group tomorrow, but you never know. I will imagine we will be looking at Carlisle. I think he is struggling on Saturday due to the fact he hasn’t trained with the group yet, but we’ll see in the morning.
It’s just bruising, we’re waiting for a bruise to settle. It isn’t a… real injury. I shouldn’t say that, but I was shouting to Sammy this morning saying ‘How’s your bruise?’ It does sound terrible when you say that and I know it is really sore.
He’s just got a kick on a sore part of his shin and he was struggling to weight-bear with it. We had to get it scanned again because he had that tibia stress fracture at the start of the season. Thankfully, there is nothing in there and it is just a bit of bruising.
Sammy does get kicked quite a bit and that is, unfortunately, the perils of being a jinky, tricky winger who takes people on, certainly at League Two level. If they can’t keep up with you they tend to just boot you and Sammy is a victim of that.
Unfortunately, the accumulation of that has meant he’s got a bit of severe bruising and we’ve missed him in recent weeks because he’s a huge players for us, but Rhino (Harry Anderson) and other people have gone in there and the team hasn’t skipped a beat and we’ve managed to keep the results profile superb.
Hi Joey, Elliot Anderson ended up being the only player called up for international duty. Is that perhaps very good news because the players who were in contention (Luca Hoole and James Connolly) can now focus on the end of the season and not have to worry about international duty?
No, for us it’s a real tip of the cap to the group to the group when the players start getting international recognition. It is a real positive indicator for the playing group and the quality of our younger players, for their countries to be thinking of them is a tip of the hat to them.
For us, I’m not sure if Elliot’s going to go. I’m not sure what’s going on with that at this moment in time and we’ll make a plan.
I’m delighted for all of the boys to be in contention to be called up. It’s certainly a positive for our group.
If Elliot didn’t go on international duty that would be a big boost for you because he’s playing so well and taking him out of your side could disrupt your flow?
Yeah, but as we’ve done all season, if someone goes out, someone will fill the shirt and, usually, they’ve given the required level of performance, but we’re hoping not to lose him because he’s been a superb acquisition since he came into the group in January and you want all your players available.
If he does get called up, it’s out of our hands as well. We want everyone available at all times.
On those players who were in contention for call-ups, have you spoken to them? Have they been feeling disheartened that they weren’t called up because they have been in good form for your side and that could have come with a reward?
No, I spoke to Paul Bodin, who is the Wales under-21 manager. There was an exchange between the club and him and he understood our situation.
I think they may not have been called up through the conversation we had. We don’t want to lose any of our players because we’ve got a massive game at Carlisle and all the lads are starting players for us, it’s just common sense.
We want to have great relationships with the federations because they can cause issues should they call up lots of your players.
We want out players to go away on international duty because I think for any player, it’s some of your best moments and it’s what you dream about doing as a player, but also there is a bit of back and forth because of the experience they will get from playing in a promotion charge compared to playing in a friendly or maybe a qualifier where you can’t qualify, that experience would be more useful to a player’s career than getting a game in an international friendly or in a qualifier where you can’t make the major tournament.
Lastly, do you think Luca Hoole’s attacking game has improved recently? He’s got a goal and he got a great assist for Aaron Collins last week. Do you think he’s adding to his game?
Yeah, I think so. He got in the team based on how good he was as a defender.
Through the rhythm of playing lots of games, he’s added assists. I would like for him to add a few more goals but I have to remember the keeper at Newport made a fantastic save from him late on and he did score his first goal for us against Exeter. I can’t be too critical of him.
He’s not quite Trent (Alexander-Arnold) at the moment. I don’t think there are many in world football who are Trent, but we want him to try to create opportunities for our attacking players.
Really pleased with his development, his development of his overall game. His defensive side of his game is his bread and butter, but he’s starting to add that final product stuff which all full-backs in the modern game are judged on.
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