Gaffer's thoughts after pre-season trip to Stourbridge
Town went down to a 2-0 defeat away to Evostick league side Stourbridge on Monday night but manager Micky Mellon isn’t reading too much into the result.It was a much different side than the one that won 4-0 at Solihull Moors in their previous game with players who needed to get some pre-season match time under their belts.
Micky will be looking back at the game as an important work out but one where he will be disappointed with the result.
“First of all I came here to top up the players match minutes, have a look a few trialists and to get another good game in”, said Micky.
“I’m not surprised by the type of the game we got and I’m delighted that we got that type of game.
“Credit to Stourbridge as they got right into us and really made us work hard and that is the reason we came here.
“I have to defend the boys as it’s not really a team we have sat down with and prepared properly, it’s more a group of individuals that need match minutes but that’s not taking anything away from Stourbridge.
“The important thing is we got players 90 minutes under their belts, we got a lot of young lads into this environment to see what it’s all about, we had a look at a couple of trialists so all in all we got what we wanted but disappointed that we didn’t play much better.”
Micky was quick to play down the result when compared to the 4-0 win at Solihull Moors as they sides had been prepared differently.
“We don’t want people to go overboard with tonight’s result, the team at Solihull was a team that was prepared for the game and one that we worked with for several days before the game”, he added.
“This was a group of lads who were put together along with a group of young lads who needed match minutes.
“There were a couple of trialist and they came in late so a lot of the lads probably didn’t know their names at the start.
“You can’t read too much into the result, you come to places like this and you want a good honest game of football, get as many match minutes under your belt and hopefully not pick up any injuries.
“That’s what we will take away from it and there are 14 to 15 lads who didn’t play tonight but trained hard today and we will all come back together on Wednesday and prepare for the Hibs game.”
There were a couple of trialists in the side this evening and the manager is always keen to have a look at new faces when he can. It will be a case of weighing up the performances in the game and in training before deciding on the next step.
“It’s a thing that we constantly do and when we feel there are opportunities to look at players we will do”, said the Gaffer.
“It’s tough for them because they are coming into a group where they don’t really have a part at present.
“They have to impress though and this is the world that they are living in where they have to impress us and make us think about them.
“One is with us for another few days and we will probably speak after that, we will probably speak to the agent of the other one over the next couple of days.”
Town welcome SPFL side Hibernian to the Greenhous Meadow on Sunday in a good final pre-season game. It is a game that the side will prepare for with formation and game plans in place and Micky is expecting a good game.
“It will be more of a team that has been prepared for the game with instructions on what we want to do on and off the ball”, he added.
“That will be a more structured game for us and one that we are very much looking for.
“We will continue to build up the fitness levels as we prepare for that MK Dons game in a week or so.”