Mark Yates looks ahead to our opening home League game
Manager Mark Yates has said he’s looking for improvements across the whole pitch ahead of Reds’ League Two clash against AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, kick off 3pm.
The squad return to the Checkatrade.com Stadium for the first home league game and Mark is hoping his side can improve defensively, with a tough test against the Dons expected.
Referring to Tuesday’s Cup defeat at Peterborough, Mark said: “It was a sloppy start from kick-off, but to be fair we got back into the game, created chances and should’ve scored goals.
“At the moment, we’re far from finished article and need to be better across the pitch. That said, I was pleased with ball movement, the formation and the way we worked hard to give Peterborough a tough game.”
With a lot of matches for the Reds in a relatively short period, the manager and his coaching staff are working hard to make sure the team know their roles, as well as how they’ll be executing them in each game. But Mark is confident that their homework has been done and will be implemented during Saturday’s match.
“We’re searching for a way to get the most out of group and obviously it’s a shame to lose Conor (Henderson) and Simon (Walton) on Tuesday, but we can be adaptable with the small squad we have. For example, Bryan (Van Den Bogaert) came in on Tuesday and did okay," he added.
“We don’t fear them but we know their tough, we’ve done our homework. We need to start better and impose our system in order to try and be dominant in the game."
The gaffer also stressed the need for strong home performances and for the fans to help make the Checkatrade.com Stadium a fortress.
“I’m looking forward to home game, my whole team is. We haven’t won yet, but we’ll be looking to win at home and make it a difficult place for other teams to come to. That means we have to be better defensively, as well as having the spark up front to score goals
“We want to make a solid start in the league. We’re looking at taking points from first five games then assessing. Like I said last week, I still believe that we have the toughest start in League Two, but we’ll be looking to give it everything.”
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