Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Boreham Wood, we spoke to Head Coach Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, he disussed the victory at Harborough Town in the Isuzu FA Trophy, the Christmas schedule and looked ahead to the Boreham Wood visit.
Here is everything we learnt:
1. A result that served its purpose
“Yes, it (win at Harborough Town) served its purpose. We needed to rest a number of the players. It’s been a tough schedule in terms of games played and travel, and a lot of the guys have been involved in almost every match.
“So we took the opportunity to rest a number of them. It’s not always possible to rest everybody, but for the most part we came through it okay and were strong enough to win the game.”
2. Squad rotation and managing minutes
“Guys who haven’t played too many minutes of late were able to get those minutes under their belt, which was important.
“There’s always a balance when you’re trying to protect players but still be competitive, and overall we got that balance right.”
3. A slightly kinder festive schedule
“A little bit, yes. Some years the games are really close together and that can impact you if you’ve got injuries or players unavailable in key positions.
“Having the opportunity to play, travel back, rest, recover and then go again is really important at this time of year.”
4. Elliot Embleton back on the pitch
“It was great to see Elliot (Embleton) back. He needed the minutes.
“We’re trying to introduce him slowly because of his injury history, and we’re not in a position to start him yet, but having him as an option is good for everybody.”
5. Another long trip in the Trophy
“We’ll look at that in more detail when we get closer to it, but it’ll be more of the same in terms of travelling and artificial surfaces.
“We’ll probably approach it in a similar manner.”
6. Looking ahead to Boreham Wood
“It’ll be a good game. Two good footballing sides.
“They’re playing really good football at the moment, moving the ball well and carrying good threats at the top end of the pitch. Their results are very much on par with ours.
“They’ll feel they have an advantage being at home, but we’ve shown in the past we can go to difficult away fixtures and get positive results. That’ll be our mindset.”
7. Lessons from the earlier meeting
“It seems a long time ago now. We got ourselves into a winning position that night and probably should have seen it out.
“Since then, both teams have improved, so it’ll be a different game with different players involved.”
8. Dealing with pressure and scheduling
“It feels like we’re always playing catch-up with other teams having already played.
“It’s not ideal, but we’re getting used to it now and it doesn’t impact us as much as it might other teams.”
9. Injury update
“Junior Luamba is going to be out for a significant amount of time, unfortunately.
“We’ve got a couple of others we’ll have to wait on, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment in terms of availability.”
10. Preparation and community work
“The lads do a remarkable job in the community all year round. It sometimes goes unnoticed, but it has a big impact when they turn up, especially at this time of year.”
