Manager Robbie Stockdale looks ahead to Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup Round Three tie against Premier League side Burnley at Turf Moor…
“You can tell that we’ve got a big game coming up - everyone is fit and available on the training pitch which is great for me, so we feel that we’re in quite a positive place.
“And we obviously [go into the game] on the back of a good point at Mansfield at the weekend. That was a very hard fought point in the end, but we feel that we’re in a decent moment and everybody is looking forward to it.”
He continued: “We approach the game in terms of what we do in exactly the same way. We’re consistent in our work - I believe that’s the best way to prepare for any game, so we’ve not given it any extra thought to what we would Oldham at the weekend.
“I suppose the biggest difference is that you know what you’re up against a little bit more because of the exposure that the Premier League teams get on TV. You get exposed to what they’re doing an awful lot more than maybe what a team in our division are doing, so to speak, and everybody will know all the players that are on the pitch for them, so that’s the biggest difference, but we go with a really positive mindset. I want the players to perform to their best, I think that’s the main thing. Win, lose, or draw, if we perform at our best, then there can be no complaints.”
The Boss says that he’s looking for the players to give a good account of themselves.
I think it’s a slippery thing when you just say go and enjoy it because, in my experience, you only really enjoy it if you’ve played well.
“Now that might not be good enough on the night - we know they’ve got quality throughout their squad and they are Premier League players/ international players so we accept that, but if we don’t perform to the levels that we’ve set ourselves, certainly in the last half a dozen games, then that’ll be the disappointment so you don’t then enjoy it.
“Again, we’ve got massive respect for what Burnley are and what they do but we want to show what we do as well, and I think that’s important.”
And Stockdale confirmed that he has a full fit squad to choose from for the match.
Everybody is fit and available. Everybody trained today. The substitutes from Saturday - Jeriel is fine, he trained today and had no issues. Matty Done also trained today - he just looked a bit tired at the weekend, so, yeah, a fully fit squad.
“I’m, going to be the horrible bearer of bad news to some of them but everybody is pulling in the same direction. I said all along that it’ll take everybody and it well again.”
Watch the interview in full on our YouTube channel.