Mark wants more of the same on Saturday
Town Manager Mark Robins has been impressed by his side’s last two displays and expects more of the same against Millwall.
The performances earned Robins’ men victory over Bradford and a draw against QPR last Saturday.
“I expect us to give a good account of ourselves,” Robins said. “We need to continue in the same vein from last Saturday and be positive. Games at the Den are always interesting, though. Millwall supporters make it a special atmosphere and one or two of our players will never have experienced anything like it.
“They haven’t made the greatest of starts, but they only have one point less than us,” he continued. “It is very early days in the season and you can’t read into anything; they are at home and the impetus is with them to take the initiative. We will go and play our game, though, and try and combat them. We want to put right what happened last season.
“The atmosphere can be electric and partisan, but we go there expecting that. The majority of our squad have experienced it before and it is a great environment to play football in. If we can perform to our maximum, I am confident that we will get a good result. We have trained and prepared properly for what will be a very good game.”
Joel Lynch has been one of Town’s stand-out performers since coming back into the side and Mark has been pleased with the Welsh international’s contribution.
“He has looked superb,” he said. “He worked his socks over the summer and during pre-season and has taken his form into the season. Our three central defenders have stood up and done well during the first week; alongside that we have young Murray Wallace who will play in the Development game today to get minutes under his belt.”
While most of the country was watching England vs. Scotland on Wednesday night, Mark made sure that he had one eye on the progress of his two Northern Ireland internationals.
“They were both outstanding,” Mark said regarding Oliver Norwood’s and Martin Paterson’s performances. “Martin is a goalscorer and his goal will do him a world of good. He put in an unbelievable shift, as he always does. He was unlucky to have another goal chalked off, which was just offside. It was an excellent performance from the whole Northern Irish team and they thoroughly deserved the win.
“Oliver’s distribution of the ball went up a notch from Saturday and the challenge for him is take his international performance into Saturday’s game.”
Mark also confirmed good news on the injury front with midfielder Jonathan Hogg set for a return.
“He is back in and has been since Monday. He had a cold, but has recovered sufficiently to be involved. Everybody has a fight on to keep their place; Oscar (Gobern) did very well against QPR.”
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