Danny Schofield is pleased with the understanding of the Rovers squad as they continue to get up to speed with his methods ahead of the visit of Harrogate Town.
Rovers have experienced a disrupted week of training due to the freezing temperatures but Schofield feels his side are in a good place as they prepare for Saturday’s Yorkshire derby.
On the impact of the cold weather this week:
“It’s affected us somewhat and we’ve been off the grass because the pitches have been frozen. We have the facility of the 4G at the stadium and we trained at an indoor place on Tuesday.
“We’ve managed to get some decent sessions in for the lads.
“We’re all trying to get the players training on grass as much as possible but at this time of year mother nature sometimes says otherwise. We’ve got facilities and it’s a case of everyone mucking in.
“The groundstaff are doing all they can to try to get training on the grass and plenty of credit must go to them.”
On potential returns for Tom Anderson, Joseph Olowu and Luke Molyneux:
“Joseph is due to train on Friday and Tom is back in after recovering from illness.
“I wouldn’t entirely rule Joseph out. As long as a player returns and I think they can impact the squad in some way and get a good day’s training under their belts, they’ll always be considered.
“Luke has trained. He’s still got some discomfort in that area of his knee but according to Mick the physio, that’s normal. He’s progressed since he’s been back on the grass. He’s back with the group.”
On Charlie Seaman’s performance at Newport and progress:
“Charlie has been in my thoughts for a while. I’ve worked with him for seven or eight weeks on the training pitch and he’s shown great attitude, character and qualities as a footballer to be up for selection.
“I think with the form that Kyle Knoyle was in playing in that position made it tough for Charlie to get in the team. But with that performance, Charlie did himself no harm. He’s probably more in my thoughts now than he was before.
“I place a massive value on training - as much as I do on the games. If players are taking my eye with positive performances in training, every player at this club will get an opportunity.”
On Ro-Shaun Williams shaking off mistakes:
“I don’t like to single any player out but for Ro-Shaun to bounce back from the Walsall game was immense and said a lot about his character. There were a lot of questions around Ro-Shaun but I thought he stood up and showed really good leadership qualities in that central position of the three at centre back. He was excellent.
“He’s made more than 150 appearances as a league football but he is still young, he’s still developing and he’s still learning the game. The most important thing is that he wants to learn and improve.
“He’s really good at pushing and driving himself. Like any other player, there are dips in form and confidence but if you can bounce back from those, it shows how strong the character is. We have a number of players like that in the squad.”
On making changes to his side:
“I base everything on work ethic, attitude, application and wanting to be better above everything else. If I see that in training sessions and some players are doing it more than others, they come to the forefront of my mind.
“Also, tactically I look at the opposition and see which player in which position can perform best in that game. These things are really important to me and I like to think that if players are high in these areas then they’ll be up for selection.”
On the test of Harrogate:
“Like every other game in League Two and professional football it’s going to be challenging and competitive.
“I think they’ve got some very exciting players in attack. They have lots of movement in attack and we need to be defensively and fundamentally sound.
“We feel that we’re in a good place in terms of understanding how we want to play football and if we can carry those out to a really good standard then first of all we’ll be competitive and second have a good chance to win the football game.”
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