Chris previews Tuesday night vs Notts County
- Chris Powell comments on Notts County game
- Manager says Capital One Cup game is 'huge'
- Chris gives update on injuries to Scannel, Vaughan & Lolley
Manager Chris Powell has described Tuesday night’s Capital One Cup game at home to Notts County as ‘huge’ for the Club.
Town go into the game on the back of an opening day defeat at Hull City, but Powell wants his side to replicate much of what it did in the performance on Humberside.
“We’ve had time to digest and reflect upon the performance at Hull and a lot of elements that were missing in pre-season were there on Saturday. Of course, we need to have that devilment in the opposing box, but at times we defended well against a side that will be disappointed not to finish in the top two,” Chris told htafc.com.
“I was pretty pleased with our response to going behind, particularly in the second half until they scored against the run of play. There were a lot of passages of good play, which had been missing. We just needed to get one of those chances in the back of the net.
“I think the players can take a lot of confidence from it. After a very mixed set of pre-season results, I thought we played our best football since we’ve been back and morale is good because they know they played well in spells.
“People may think I’m putting a positive spin on it, but we were well supported at Hull and I believe they saw a team going for it. We had a game-plan, but although we played well at times between the boxes, we needed to make our moments count; it’s about putting the ball in the back of the net.”
Now Chris is looking forward to seeing his side in competitive action on home soil for the first time in 2015/16:
“Now what we need to do is kick-start our season in these three home games; one in the Cup and two in the League. We want a positive result so our players and fans feel good, because confidence adds to your game.
“If we bring a lot of those elements of good play from Saturday into the Notts County game, we will get a result and score goals more often than not.
“It’ll be good to be back playing at the John Smith’s; it’s the place where we normally earn our majority of points. Of course this is a Cup game and it’ll be good to get a cup run going, as it’s important to us.
“I know sometimes people use these games as an opportunity to rest eight or nine players, but I certainly won’t be doing that as we need our season to start. We want to build a little bit of momentum going into Saturday’s game against Blackburn.
“We will respect Notts County and earn the right to play, but this is huge for us. We want to show everyone the quality that we have.”
Tuesday’s opponent Notts County has been the most active club in the summer transfer market so far, with new Manager Ricardo Moniz bringing in 18 players; many from overseas.
Chris continued: “They’ve signed 18 players; that is some turnaround. You can forget last year’s relegation, as it is a totally new squad.
“I actually went to watch them play Scunthorpe and I was quite impressed. However, most of the players that featured that night didn’t play on Saturday.
“What we have to do is not worry about what we’re playing against and get on with our own game, concentrating on what we need to do tomorrow evening.”
On injured trio Sean Scannell (hamstring), James Vaughan (concussion) and Joe Lolley (shins), Chris offered this update:
“They are going ok, but they won’t be ready for Notts County. I’m hopeful they will be able to train by Thursday and then we can make a decision on Saturday.
“I think it’s wise not to rush them for this game and hopefully they will be ok to face Blackburn. If we risk them, they could then be out for the next 10 games.”
Tuesday night's game is pay at the turnstiles for all Town ends; click HERE for full info.
