Manager Neil Harris has said he feels the meticulous planning that goes into games has reaped the rewards away from home so far this season.
Micro managing not only the game plan for the 90 minutes but also the travel arrangements, speaking to the official site in his pre Rochdale press conference, Harris explained that he felt with eleven wins on the road this year, the planning was paying off.
‘We’ve been very good. Travelling doesn’t bother us and the lads just get on with it. We make sure we do it properly and prepare meticulously in terms of our travel arrangements. It is going to be another really tough one, and I seem to say that most weeks. They’re a good side and certainly very threatening going forward with good size in their team. They pass it well and look to retain possession, but also have the threat of putting the ball in the box. There will be no stone unturned video analysis wise. And then we focus on a gameplan to stop them playing and also about us hurting the opposition. In recent weeks we’ve got the balance just right.’
With last week’s three nil victory being the third straight away win on the spin and the best performance of the season, Harris said he hadn’t ruled out making changes to the starting line up for Rochdale and Spotland because Carlos Edwards is one that comes back into contention following his injury recovery.
‘It’s always tempting to stick with the same side but as I showed after a very, very good performance at Oxford, and a victory, I’m prepared to change things if I believe that’s the best team to win a game. We’ve certainly got options to look at players who came off the bench last week and also ones who I believe could do a good job of stopping Rochdale and effecting the game going the other way.’
Youngster Sid Nelson made his first start of 2016 in the victory over Walsall deputising for Mark Beevers, and in his own interview the 20 year old credited the gaffer for the game plan and the continuing encouragement Harris gives the players for our form so far this year.
‘Before the game we sat down and had a talk. We said that we would have to dig in and stick together because the conditions were terrible. We did that, but the gaffer said that we have to take it game by game and now we are looking forward to Rochdale and getting three points there. After that, we will look at the next game.’
Having made his debut back in December 2014 in a team battling against relegation, Nelson went on to say challenging at the top of League One has made a refreshing change.
‘It is such a difference from last season. The unity of the group this year compared to last year is so much better, we’ve got a real solid group here. There’s a good batch of young lads, but the main credit has to go to the older lads who have let the younger lads express themselves in training, on the pitch by helping them out, giving them words of encouragement. The senior players here have been top class, so encouraging of us youngsters and that has only helped us gel as a group.’
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