With the new league season now well underway, Swindon Town turn their attentions to the Carabao Cup as they travel to the Poundland Bescot Stadium tomorrow evening for a first round encounter against Walsall.
First-Team Head Coach, Scott Lindsey, addressed the media earlier today in his pre-match press conference, confirming updates on his latest injury list, an insight into potential team selection and assessed his sides chances of progressing in the competition.
An overview on Walsall…
“I know their coach, Michael Flynn, very well and he’s a good friend of mine, and we are certainly in for a tough match tomorrow evening.
“They’ve started the season very positively with two good results in their opening league games so they’ll be incredibly tough to break down.
“They’re a side that work hard for each other and are hard to break down, so we’ll have to put in a good performance to ensure we get what we want out of the game and win our individual battles.”
Lindsey on team selection…
“I want to give players minutes at the moment as we still have a few getting up to speed who joined us later during pre-season, and this game provides the opportunity to do that.
“However, we want to win every game we play and tomorrow evening will be no different. We go into every match with the same mentality and I want to progress in this competition, so we’re focused on getting a positive result.
“We played well during spells against Harrogate and put in a great second half showing against Salford on Saturday, so a positive performance throughout the full ninety isn’t far off in my opinion.
“Obviously playing the second half at the weekend with ten men wasn’t what we anticipated, and the players gave everything in the game, so we’ve had to assess them and ensure we pick a team for tomorrow night taking the players workload and conditions into consideration.
“On the other hand, it provides opportunities for players to stake a claim in the team and fight for a starting berth, and as a manager you always want competition for places.
“Harry (McKirdy) is suspended for the game, so it’s a shame he’ll miss out on this one.
Injury news…
“We’ve obviously still got Ellis out at the moment, and Reece Devine had another scan which revealed something in the hamstring area, so he might be out for a little while, but we’ll keep assessing him daily.
“Ciaran Brennan is also out after a reoccurrence of some concussion issues he suffered against Harrogate Town.”
Lindsey on togetherness within the squad…
“Saturday’s game has played a huge part in this, and really galvanised us.
“Players dug in and gave everything for each other and the fans, and I think that will play a key role in helping us continue to develop those key relationships both on and off the pitch.
“We had just three players starting against Salford that played the second leg against Port Vale last season, so in effect, we’ve almost got an entirely new squad, and it can take time for players to adjust and get to know each other better in the football environment.
“I was really please with the commitment and team spirit they showed at the weekend, and we need to take this forward now.”
Scoring goals moving forward…
“Of course we’ve had two league games without scoring, but we have players all over the pitch who are capable of finding the back of the net.
“You only have to look at Ben Gladwin and Jonny Williams who have scored goals for this club, Saidou got a good number for Chesterfield last term, Harry was our leading scorer and Tomi had a productive season last time out, so I’m confident the goals will come.
“We created against Harrogate, missed a penalty and should have scored a few against Salford, so it’s only a matter of time before we get the goals flowing which will instil even more confidence across the team.”