Gary McSheffrey feels his Rovers side are on the right track to bounce back to positive form in Sky Bet League Two this weekend.
Rovers host Crawley Town at the Eco-Power Stadium, having ended a three game run of defeats in the league with a 2-1 triumph at Lincoln City in the Papa John’s Trophy in midweek.
McSheffrey felt there were positive signs in the performance at Lincoln which have been followed up in training over the last few days as his side prepares for the test of Crawley.
McSheffrey on how the returning players came through Tuesday’s game:
“They’ve all come through. They’ll all be available for selection.
“I thought they did well the other night, really contributed to the game and the performance.
“They’ve been available for training and they’re fine. They’re available for the weekend and it’s nice to have them back.”
On Ben Close’s return:
“That was his first game for me the other night since I’ve been in charge so he is like a new signing for me. I really look forward to him playing in the team.
“We hope he can stay injury free now and get over what he’s been through, be positive, look to the future and look forward to playing football again.
“He looks a lot happier in himself and in the environment. He was down a little bit, expectedly. I think he’s confident that he’s robust enough to get through the injury that he had on a long-term basis.
“We know he’s a decent footballer so if he stays injury-free it’s only good for the team.”
On players playing their way into the team:
“Potentially they have. There are shirts up for grabs. We know it’s not been good enough in the previous games so no one is in enough credit to knock on my door if they’re left out.
“It was good that players came and took advantage of the situation the other day, enjoying themselves in a good game of football.
“There will be opportunities for everyone. We’ll have a chat and sleep on things but we’ve got good food for thought and good selection problems.”
On what has gone wrong in recent games and how he will respond:
“We’ve got ideas of why certain things didn’t work but we’ll keep them in-house and look to rectify it.
“We’re always looking for solutions if things aren’t going well. We stripped it back to basics and tweaked a few things at Lincoln and we got a good solid performance.
“It gives us food for thought and we’ll look to find solutions over the next 24 hours to ensure that we’re better on Saturday.
“It’s not just about creating chances. You have to dig deeper than that. You’re not going to create chances if you’re not building play and keeping the ball well enough.
“We feel we know what we need to do. We got a good response the other night and we feel we need to keep doing that.”
On the test of Crawley:
“I think they’ve got some good players and play some good football. They’ve signed a lot of players and have good energy, pace and attacking options.
“They’re a good team, probably underachieving a bit and it’s one we have to be wary of.
“We’re at home. We know we need to get home form back up and running. We’ll go out tere and try to win the game.”
On a big response at home:
“You need to see it in every game. You want to see front-foot football and confidence in every game.
“Sometimes you have spells as a player, a coach, a club where it’s not quite going your way and it’s about bouncing back. We feel we’re on the right track for bouncing back.”
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