Manager ahead of the Coventry game
Manager Greg Abbott spoke to us about the Coventry game at his weekly press conference on Friday afternoon.
He said: “It’ll be a difficult one but I don’t think anything is easy in this division.
“They have some decent players but, then again, so do we. They’ve brought Leon Clarke in, and he will want to make an impact, but they have the likes of McSheffrey and Baker who are good, solid players and who are well established there.
“Our job will be to deal with their threats and play our own game to make sure we are also causing a few problems.”
“I don’t think either Mike Edwards or Peter Murphy will be ready for Sunday,” he told us. “Mike has more work to do with his hamstring problem and Murph has picked up a bit of a tight calf. We don’t think that one will be too serious, maybe a couple of weeks, but it made it important for us to find someone like Sean O’Hanlon who can come in and add a bit of experience.
“Paul Thirlwell, Chris Chantler and Danny Cadamarteri have either trained or will train with us on Saturday, so we’re getting closer to where we want to be.”
“We think Sean O’Hanlon will be a good addition,” he continued. “We’ve had a good look at him and we think he’ll bring a bit of experience in there. He’s played over 300 games at this level so he knows it well.
“Sean McGinty has gone back to Manchester United. He’s one we liked and we think he’ll be a very good player. He gave us cover at an important time but, at the moment, we think we need players who can come in and make an immediate impact. He has a little bit further to go but we will certainly monitor what he’s up to.”
“We don’t have anything else imminent in terms of movement and it’s a case of shuffling finances if we want to make things happen,” he continued.
“It isn’t easy and we have to bear in mind that we actually have a good squad. When everyone is available we have some good options. We’re always working away and that will never change. If something crops up that we can do, and it fits all the criteria, then we’ll go ahead and do it.”
“We’re looking to build on the home results we got over Christmas,” he said. “It would be fantastic for us to make it three-in-a-row and it would help us to put the very disappointing display against Swindon behind us.
“If we take that one out of the equation then we’ve seen better performances overall. Swindon was one where I knew as early as ten minutes into the game that it was going to be a difficult day for us. Things just weren’t right. We need to learn from that, because we don’t want it to happen again, but it’s also important for us to focus on the way we can play.
“We know that if we work hard and do what we did against Hartlepool, and in the first half against Bury, then we’ll get ourselves a result.”
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