Daws looks ahead to Altrincham game

Tony Daws, the Iron’s interim first team manager, has previewed Tuesday night's away game against Altrincham.

He told Iron Player: “We’re looking forward to Tuesday night, we’ll go across there in good spirits, give it our best shot, and hopefully it’ll be good enough for us to get a result."

The weekend's game against Eastleigh was postponed, following the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, and Tony spoke about how this affected the team's preparations. He said: “It’s obviously very sad what’s happened with the Queen passing away, and it’s important in football that we pay our respects.

“It’s obviously affected our planning and organisation for the weekend, so we came in on Saturday morning and trained, and had an in house 11 v 11. We tried to replicate the distance covered, so around 10km, and the players managed to do that. We came in and did the work, so hopefully, that’ll be good preparation for Tuesday.”

He continued: “Some of the players needed that, because they’ve not played too many games, certainly some of the younger parts of the squad. It gave us a good opportunity to cast our eyes over all the players, and have a look at different formations, different shapes, and different players in different positions.

“We wanted to try and find out which is our best shape, and our best 11, and to now try and get a result on Tuesday.”

The ex-player also spoke about the opponents, adding: “It’ll be a battle, as both teams need to win. They may also be as anxious as we are, but they are at home so they’ll have to come at us, which may give us chances on the counter attack.

“It’ll be a difficult game because both teams are at the wrong end of the table for the wrong reasons. There is a saying that ‘there are no easy games’, and it will be a tough game between two teams. We can only do our best.”

Tony spoke further about the mentality of the team going into the eighth game of the season, saying: “We’ll go to Altrincham and be positive, and again try and play on the front foot, with respect to how they play, and the players they’ve got, and their shape and strategy.

“I’ve said to the players this morning, that it’s about us, how we play, and about putting a shift in. It’s about everyone giving it their best shot, and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

The boss also provided an update on full-backs Mason O’Malley and Reagan Ogle, saying: “Mason and Reagan are back in the squad. They trained for the full session on Saturday, and for the full session on Monday morning. They look fit, strong, healthy, and the injuries seem to be behind them so fingers crossed that they’ll be alright."

On the rest of the team's fitness, he said: “The injured lads are getting closer. Kgosi (Ntlhe) was on the grass this morning and joined with the main group for the warm up, before doing some running with the Strength and Conditioning Coach (Scott Johnson).

“Jordan Hallam is still in the treatment room with the medical staff. Marcus Carver has got a strain as well, and speaking to the medical team - it’s a grade one, so a case of working on recovery for a couple of weeks, and then he should be back into training. Apart from that everything is good.”

Finally, speaking about the Iron’s newest addition Aiden Marsh, following his loan move from Barnsley, Daws reiterated his gratitude the way of the Tykes for allowing the move to happen this past week.

"He has come in on loan which is great, he has great pace and and he can score goals. He likes to run in behind the opposition and he may be that little spark that we need sometimes. It’s great if you have pace in the team and Aiden brings that for us, with his goalscoring ability as well," he added.