Louis thoughts ahead of the weekend game with Northampton
Louis Dodds is pleased to be back in the fold after injury ahead of a meeting with his former manager, and believes that the imminent change in manager will have a positive effect on the side.Town are looking for their first win since the start of September to lift themselves off the bottom of the table before their new boss is appointed.
Dodds spoke of his relief to be back in the side and his desire to make things as easy as possible for the new boss.
“It’s frustrating, I think for anyone that loves training and playing football, when you’re not allowed to it’s very frustrating.
“You’re twitching on the side so hopefully I’m not doing that anymore and can get a start in the near future.
“We’ve had a few dodgy results, so now we need to stop the rot and steady the ship ready for the new manager.
The midfielder has seen a switch in manager make a difference to a team’s fortunes in the past, and hopes that the same can ring true this time around.
“Normally when a team get a new manager in, it has a galvanizing effect and hopefully it will be the same for us.
“The only way is up for us so we need to stay positive and get some points on the board.”
Dodds played under current Northampton boss Rob Page at Port Vale from 2014 until earlier this year, and he has nothing but praise for his former coach.
“I loved it, it was probably when I was playing my most consistent football. He’s a great bloke and I’ve got a lot of time for him.”
Despite his praise, and affection for Page, Dodds says that Town cannot get carried away thinking about a side and style that they may be familiar with, and concentrate on their own game as they look to climb the table.
“We’ll maybe give a few pointers to the manager about how they generally set up, but at the end of the day it’s about what we do on the day, we can’t think about them too much, we’ve got to try and impose ourselves, rather than being on the back foot and playing to their tune.
“If we do that, we’ve got a great team and we need to start showing it.
The game on Saturday is likely to be the last in charge for caretaker boss Danny Coyne, and he is another figure that Dodds has nothing but good words for.
“He’s still got that friendly approach to him, which I think you need as a manager.
“He’s probably shown to the lads that he’s got more to him than we thought, because we’ve only really seen him with the goalkeepers.
Dodds went on: “He’s very modest, he’s a good bloke and he likes to have a laugh.”
The midfielder was also quick to praise his teammates for their reaction towards Coyne, as he has often seen things go awry when a caretaker has been put in charge.
“Sometimes when a caretaker comes in, it can be a bit of a free for all and I’ve been at clubs where the players take charge and then the people in charge haven’t really got a clue.
“But Coyney’s come in and he’s done really well to steady the ship.”
“It would be nice and fitting for him if we got the three points, because he’s done a lot behind the scenes and the lads appreciate that so it would be nice to show him that with the three points.”