Manager Graham Alexander is happy with his squad’s preparations for this weekend’s match against Portsmouth, which included a behind-closed-doors game.
Alexander will be looking to build on the result against Doncaster, but recognises the quality in the Pompey side.
He spoke to iFollow Iron to preview the match, provide the latest team news and praise the recent support.
ON GETTING READY FOR THE PORTSMOUTH GAME…
GA: It’s going pretty good. We’ve looked after the lads who played on Sunday with a recovery session. The other guys had a game behind-closed-doors at Preston. Everyone that didn’t play on Sunday played. It’s been a good week for them all, and all got 90 minutes under their belt, which is what we want to try and do for all the players to keep them up to speed. Whenever the opportunity arises for them to be used on matchday, they’re ready for it. They all played in the right way and worked extremely hard. We prepare for those games exactly how we do for the first team. We take it seriously, so the players go and perform as they should. They all did, so I’m delighted with that. Saturday is our main focus. We’ve got a tough week coming up with two long journeys after that. We need all our players to be ready to play, so that’s why we got that game sorted. Now we have to focus on Portsmouth and make sure we do all the right stuff leading up to that.
ON TEAM NEWS…
GA: Charlie Goode took a little knock to his ankle, so we are assessing that to see if he can be involved at the weekend. If not, I think everyone else is fully fit for Saturday’s game. Charlie is the only doubt at this moment.
ON THE INJURED TRIO…
GA: I think they are as they were. Andrew Crofts is the closest one to return to full fitness, so hopefully he will be back with us soon. The other two (Jonathon Margetts and Luke Williams) are still a little bit away.
ON PORTSMOUTH…
GA: It was never going to be long before the positive times came back to a club of that size. The backing they’ve had from the supporters has been fantastic and it’s kept them in existence really. They started the climb back to where they expect to be as a club with promotion last season. We know they’ve got good footballers and we know they’ve got a very experienced manager (Kenny Jackett), who knows the game. They had a fantastic result last week. We expect a tough challenge at home on Saturday.
"We haven’t had an easy game. Every other game has been a really tight affair and we have to make sure we’re on the right side of all the fine margins that happen each week."
ON RECENT GAMES…
GA: We haven’t had an easy game. Every other game has been a really tight affair and we have to make sure we’re on the right side of all the fine margins that happen each week. I think the quality has been spread throughout the division this year. The games are tighter. The professionalism and everything about the planning for games is getting better and better. We know how we have to focus and approach each game. It’s important we realise all the small details count and I think we’re doing that. I think we’ve started the season really well, but we know that there are still improvements to come from us. The players are in good spirits. To win that game against Doncaster was a massive boost for everybody – supporters, players and all the staff. It’s always good to win games. Obviously, against your local rivals it’s a little bit better.
ON THE FANS…
GA: The support, backing and intelligence from the supporters is fantastic for us because, as long as they see a team out there giving everything to win a game of football, then I know they will give us their full backing. Our responsibility is to give them that and then in reverse, we expect to see them get behind us. At the moment, that’s working really well in tandem. We want that to continue.
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