Mark looks ahead to Blackburn trip
Mark Robins told htafc.com that his players must take their chances if they are to gain a positive result at Ewood Park on Saturday.
Rovers have been in good form at home of late, having comprehensively beaten Bolton and Barnsley prior to the international break.
“Gary Bowyer is doing a good job there and he has turned the squad around a lot during the summer. We will need to take our chances. There is a lot of good quality in both sides and we are getting better; it will be an interesting game,” said Mark.
Both teams have inform strikers amongst their ranks in James Vaughan and Jordan Rhodes and Mark is expecting an exciting encounter.
“It will be more exciting if Vaughany out-guns him on Saturday! Jordan is a prolific striker who has progressed really well. He knows this Club well and scored the winner at Ewood Park against us last season.”
Town’s victory over Charlton on Tuesday pushed them into the top ten of the Sky Bet Championship and Mark is relatively happy with matters on the pitch.
“We are doing OK at the minute, but nothing more than that,” he said. “We are throwing our bodies in the way of shots, something which Peter Clarke has been exceptional at recently. That is what he is renowned for and that is what he is doing. Anthony Gerrard is coping really well considering he missed most of pre-season and Joel (Lynch) has been excellent.
“The players in front of them have done excellently to stem the flow,” he continued. “When we have a fully fit squad, we have a bunch of very capable Championship players.”
Mark told htafc.com that Jonathan Hogg will train on Friday and should be available, while Hogg's midfield teammate Keith Southern continues to recover from a calf injury.
“Keith has being eased back in; he has been out for a considerable amount of time. He has worked hard to be back in a position where he managed to play 65 minutes against Sheffield Wednesday for the U21s and he also played 90 minutes on Wednesday in a behind closed doors game against Bury. He has some minutes under his belt and he is getting to a position where he is ready to come back into the fold.
“We lost Danny Ward ahead of Tuesday’s game and he will be missing for about a week to ten days," Mark added. "He made a block tackle in training and went over on his ankle, which has resulted in him picking up a strain.”
Jazz Richards has now been at the Club for over a week and Mark is pleased with how the Welshman has settled in.
“He enjoyed his time on the pitch on Tuesday night; he is another player who is challenging for a place in the team.”
Mark has a number of options when it comes to the wing back spots and he was pleased with how Paul Dixon did on Tuesday when he was given a chance: “The players work hard in training and when I give them an opportunity I want them to go and seize it. Paul has worked ever so hard in training and he did well on Tuesday night. My decision on who plays comes down to the opposition that we are playing and how my own players are performing. We have a lot of games coming up and we will need to utilise the squad.”
