United manager Graham Alexander marks his 100th game in charge of the club when Bury visit Glanford Park on New Year’s Day (Monday).
The Lancashire side are managed by ex-Scunthorpe assistant boss Chris Lucketti too, but Alexander told iFollow Iron his sole focus is on getting three more valuable points as we host the Shakers for our first game of 2018.
ON THE MATCH…
GA: I look forward to every game because I love to see my team go out there and compete like they did on Saturday (at Blackburn). They’ll be looking to play as well as they can. It’ll be good to see Chris (Lucketti) beforehand and after, but he will be going into that game just like we are, and looking for his team to win the match. We have to take all the positive points we have in the last few months really and put them into Monday’s performance. We will do our best to get three points.
ON THE TEST AHEAD…
GA: Every game is a tough challenge. We don’t look into league positions or anything like that, we review the opponent and examine their qualities and the points we can maybe expose. We have to make sure our mindset is as strong as it was coming into Saturday’s game in order to give ourselves the best chance.
ON HIS MILESTONE OF 100 MATCHES IN CHARGE OF UNITED…
GA: I just want the team to win, for no other reason than to get three points and have everyone smiling at the end of the game. Personal accolades and records are for the end of your career to look back on. All I want to do is help the team and staff around us, and go all out for three points. That’s our target for Monday but we know it will be a tough challenge to do that.
ON ANY INJURIES FROM THE BLACKBURN GAME…
GA: I think Haks (Hakeeb Adelakun) was struggling a little bit. He was limping for five minutes before we took him off so we’ll have to assess him. Otherwise, I think that’s it except for the usual bumps and bruises.
ON ANY CHANGES TO THE SQUAD…
GA: Bish (Neal Bishop) comes back into the squad. His suspension is up so that’s a positive for us. Nobody will be back from injury because we only have one training day between (this game and the Blackburn game).
ON LUKE WILLIAMS’ RETURN TO FITNESS…
GA: He’s been training for three days on the bounce now and has looked physically okay but short of general fitness, so that will be built up over the next few weeks.
See much more from Graham Alexander on iFollow Iron. Click here to sign up.