Jon Taylor pleased with workout in Bolton fight back
By Matt Johnson
A testing pre-season clash against “quality” Championship players left birthday boy Jon Taylor contented and focused as Town prepare for the big kick-off at home to MK Dons in two weeks time.
The entertaining 3-3 drawn with Bolton came a week after Turkish Champions Galatasaray outclassed Graham Turner’s men, and Taylor was impressed with the qualities the team showed to bounce back from 3-1 down against the Trotters.
“It was a good exercise. I didn’t think we played particularly well first-half but the lads showed what they can do in the second-half. It’s all about fitness in pre-season but it’s good to test ourselves against better opposition.
“Bolton have got quality players in their team so they’re automatically going to make you work harder. They pass the ball well too, so it’s good for your fitness and it’s good to test ourselves and see how much difference there is between us and them. No matter whether it’s a pre-season or real game, it’s great to fight back from 3-1 down to 3-3, so it was really good.
“Galatasaray kept the ball more so it really stopped us from attacking, but you like to attack and we’re starting to get the ball down and it’s better for me because it gives me more space and time to go and attack, so I’m enjoying playing football at the minute.”
The new strike force of Akwasi Asante and John Marsden both found the net in the game and Taylor admits he has been impressed with how all of the new boys have been settling in, and he hopes the team can continue to improve heading into Tuesday’s clash with Birmingham.
“All the new lads are good lads and we’ve got a good team. We’ve just got to keep together really and see where we can go. It’s good that they’re chipping in straight away and Parry’s goal was really good too and he can do that, so it’s good for us to be scoring.
“It will all be about fitness again on Tuesday and we’ll see where we’re at with football and hopefully get the ball down and pass it and score some more goals again.”
Snap up your tickets here for the Birmingham pre-season test on Tuesday (23 July) and the big kick-off with MK Dons (3 August).