Gaffer’s thoughts ahead for the JPT game at home to Oldham
Town are back in action at the Greenhous Meadow on Tuesday night when they welcome Oldham Athletic in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.It’s a game that gives Town a break from League action and the chance to try and build another cup run after a decent little one in the Capital One Cup.
It also gives Town a chance to try and get their first win at the Greenhous Meadow so far this term after narrow defeats to Millwall, Chesterfield and Burton.
In the last two games Town have reverted to the 3-5-2 formation which served them well last season and manager Micky Mellon looks to be sticking with this;”We believe that we are seeing the start of the back three with the personnel and that working better.
“We looked a lot better defensively with the back three and there are things we want to work on to try and get better going forward.
“I’m not saying that we are always going to play with a back three but it was certainly the positive to come out of it and we looked a lot more solid.
“It is a system that will continue against Oldham, it is a system where we need to get a little bit braver playing but it is one that everyone enjoys us playing.
“If we can get people to be braver with their passing, get the wingbacks playing a little bit higher then I’m quite excited about seeing it develop.”
Town played a one all draw away to Oldham earlier in the month but the gaffer is expecting a different test in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. He did confirm that he will be making changes to the starting line-up with the welcome return of Wesolowski and Knight-Percival after their recovery from ligament injuries;”It will be a different game from the one we played at their place a couple of weeks ago.
“We are going to go into it to try and get a lot out of, as I’ve explained earlier we will be looking at a few things.
“We want to get Knight-Percival and Wesolowski some game time under their belts to see how far they are. They are really important people to the group so we will start them and give them a right good run to see where they are physically up to.
“There is a lot for us as a football club to get out of the game and for us to learn and gain.”
The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy is a competition which gives teams the chance to get to Wembley. Micky is using the game to keep improving the squad and to hopefully continue in the competition;”We are not dismissing the tournament by any stretch of the imagination; we know how important it is to perform and to win games of football.
“What we want to do is to keep on improving and to get more consistent for longer spells and to be a more attacking threat for longer in games.
“We will be going into the game for all the right reasons and want to come out of it benefitting and we will do everything to make sure that is the case.”
With the improvement in performance against Burton the gaffer is now looking to get that first home win on the board;”It is always important to win games of football, to keep clean sheets and all those things.
“We will be working towards getting all the little basics in our game, playing well as a unit and getting those performances levels improving all the time.
“It’s a game that we are looking forward to and it would be nice to get a victory to reward the fans who were terrific again on Saturday.”