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Cox looks ahead to trip to take on Cheltenham

19 October 2020

Interviews

Cox looks ahead to trip to take on Cheltenham

19 October 2020

First team manager Neil Cox has previewed the trip to take on Cheltenham Town, and revealed the game will come too soon for new arrival Junior Brown.

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20 October 2020

The 31-year-old full-back joined on Sunday morning as a free agent and will provide key experience to the squad for the games going forward, after impressing during a loan spell from Coventry City last season.

Cox explained: "He's a good signing for us, as we were looking for some experience. I know Junior from my days at Crewe as well. He's a good person to have around the place.

"He wants to come in and do well, and is a leader himself who will be able to help the other players out. He needs to get himself fully fit first so we need to keep an eye on him, but I think he's a great acquisition.

"Junior's been doing a lot of work but without playing many games - he's only played 45 minutes of a game so we have to be careful. We can't throw him in and expect him flying into a game, and then miss a number of weeks through injury.

"It's a difficult process for all players (due to COVID-19), but even harder for ones that come in who have played no fixtures in a long time and missed lots of training. We have to be ultra careful."

Speaking about preparations for the trip to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium, he continued: "We're getting ready for a big challenge. We've had a chat with all the players in terms of expectations of what we need to do now to handle the upcoming games.

"We need to get ourselves into a team spirit and start fighting for each other, but also play football like we know we can do.

"The response of the lads (to the weekend) was good and it was how I thought it would be. It wasn't a 'crisis meeting' (on Sunday) but a day where we could so some training, have a chat and a look at one or two things that we did. A lot of good came out of it, it was beneficial for everybody.

"We have to pick ourselves up and go again, and get back to basics. One or two things went against us and we also didn't play very well. We go away to a team who are expected to get promotion but we'll go there with a game plan and will try to get some points.

"We must be ready, resilient and show bravery with and without the ball."

Providing further team news, Cox added: "Frank Vincent has a sore thigh so will miss the trip, which is a shame. Everyone else who was involved in the squad will be alright, and we'll have to see who's fully fresh really before we name the side.

"Myles (Hippolyte) misses out through suspension, so he'll stay back and train. We'll try and get some training into him and the boys who are catching up with their fitness, raring to go for the weeks to come.

"Jai Rowe will come back into the squad, but he's still not fully fit and hasn't played too many games. He just managed to get through the 90 minutes for the Under-23s at Huddersfield, so we just have to be careful with him."

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