Nelson: Hopefully Saturday can be the spark to get us moving forward

The Iron’s interim assistant manager Michael Nelson has provided an update on the fitness of the squad, and previewed this weekend's away trip where the Iron will take on Wealdstone (Saturday, 3pm).

He first provided an update on the fitness of the squad, saying: “This one will come a week too soon for Reagan Ogle (back injury). He’s back on the grass, and he’s been building as the week has gone on so he will probably be back in full training from Monday.” 

He continued: “Jordan Hallam (hamstring) is doing more and more every day, he’s still yet to do a full contact session with the lads, but he’s in the warm up and doing passing drills and bits with possession. Every day he does a bit more so he’s coming along nicely. Kgosi Ntlhe (hamstring) is progressing, he hasn’t got on the grass with the lads yet, but the physios are quite happy with him.”

Nelson also provided updates on Aiden Marsh (foot fracture) and Liam Feeney (hamstring). He added: “With Marsh, Barnsley are really happy with him, and I think he’s slightly ahead of schedule. They’re doing quite a bit of work with him, they’re pleased with him. They’ve kept in contact with the club and hopefully he might be back sooner than anticipated.

“Feeney has had his operation, he’s hobbling around on his crutches at the minute, but he’s in and has his follow up appointment next week so that will be a good marker of how the operation went and how he’s healed in the last seven days.”

Joe Nuttall returns from his one-match suspension this weekend, and Nelson was asked about who will lead the line for the Iron against Wealdstone. He said: “(Caolan) Lavery and (Marcus) Carver played well together and caused a lot of problems for the Dagenham back line. Joe comes back and that strengthens the squad but it’s just a case of seeing which way is the best way to go for Wealdstone this Saturday.” 

On the opposition, the interim assistant boss said: “They’re a good team. They get it down, pass it around, and try to play through the thirds. Their home form hasn’t been great of late so I’m sure they’ll be keen to try and rectify that.

“We will go there and try to start right, and get a good positive start like we did down in Dagenham. If we can do that and convert the chances that we do create then hopefully we can put them on the back foot.” 

Nelson then offered an update on how training has gone this past week, adding: “It has been good. The lads have been really positive. We did a defending day on Tuesday, going through lots of defensive phases and scenarios, and then flipped it on its head on Thursday and did an attacking day, working on what we want to do in terms of possession and working those angles to get in behind their defence.

“On Friday we will go into a prep day ahead of Saturday, giving the lads a game plan in terms of our strengths and weaknesses and Wealdstone’s strengths and weaknesses.” 

He finished by speaking about how he’s found his return to the club during the last three months, saying: “It’s been great. I’m really enjoying it. The results aren’t what we would like and sometimes not what we deserve in terms of the balance of some of the games we’ve played. The lads and the coaching staff are working extremely hard. Hopefully Saturday can be the spark to get us going and moving forward.” 

See much more from Michael Nelson and Caolan Lavery on Iron Player.