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Every week, Town Assistant Peter Shirtliff keeps you up to date with the week's goings on in and around The County Ground.
Today, he looks back on a productive week for the club including six points out of six, an ever growing injury list, and a mixed day at the races......
It's been a good week this week, and we've got firmly back on track with two excellent wins at Brighton and Southampton respectively.
It was a difficult game against Brighton last weekend, because we'd just come off the back of the two defeats, and we put in a scrappy, fighting performance rather than a particularly fluid one.
But we showed great character having been forced to make three subs before half time, but the lads pulled themselves together, and I thought we ran out deserving winners in the end.
Obviously our numbers were reduced a little in training on MONDAY because of the injuries we'd picked up, but they looked bright and were obviously buzzing after having bounced back against Brighton.
Winning always brings a bit of optimism and lightens the mood a bit in training which was great as they were full of beans going into the Southampton match.
And of course it was another vital win for us on TUESDAY, from what was a terrific game on a good pitch, in a very nice stadium.
The discipline of the team was superb, and there were massive contributions to the game from every single one of the players.
They hit the woodwork twice and will count themselves unlucky, but to be fair we hit the woodwork five times in the two defeats we had so you get your breaks sometimes, and luckily we did against Southampton and took our chance.
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With the numbers we've got it's a bit difficult in training because we're still not 100% sure who's going to be fit.... |
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| Shirtliff on Town's injury problems |
Some people have suggested a performance and a result like that 'sends a message' to the rest of the league, but whether it does or it doesn't, there is still nearly a quarter of a season still to go so we can't get carried away yet.
We've just got to keep our own house in order and keep picking up points because we can only affect ourselves, so if we just keep chipping away and improving over time then you never know.
I had a day off on WEDNESDAY with the players not in for training, and a few of them went to Cheltenham for the races.
By all accounts some of them had a good day, but I think it's fair to say that some of them certainly didn't!
So there was quite a bit of stick flying around on THURSDAY during training, and the mood was good as we started to prepare for the Norwich game at the weekend.
We couldn't get a huge amount done because they were still in the recovery stage from Southampton, but we got a few things across that we hope the players can implement at the weekend.
With the numbers we've got at the moment it makes it a bit difficult in training because we're still not 100% sure who's going to play, but we just get on with it as best we can.
FRIDAY will give us another chance to assess those with injuries, and also to do a bit more work on the shape of the team regarding where we think we can capitalise on Norwich's weaknesses.
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| We're at home so we want to make the play and impose ourselves on the opposition..... |
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| Shirtliff outlines Saturday's game plan |
We'll also go through a few set plays for the game that hopefully can work as well as they have done on a few occasions this season.
Wes Houlihan is obviously one of their major threats, and we're hopeful we can deal with him because he plays that free role that is often so dangerous with creative players.
While we are going to pay attention to that, we're more concerned with how we're going to hurt the opposition.
It is potentially another terrific match on our excellent pitch, and I expect it to be an entertaining spectacle between two passing sides in front of a near full house.
Our frame of mind is that we're at home and we want to make the play and impose ourselves on the opposition, and hopefully that will make for another good performance and result.
See you at The County Ground,
Peter Shirtliff
