Grimsby Town joint boss Rob Scott rounds up the latest issues at Blundell Park ahead of this afternoon's clash with Barrow:
ON CLEVELAND TAYLOR'S FUTURE...
" I think Cleveland wants to leave his options open in the summer. He's been frustrated at his lack of opportunities at Burton. So if he comes in and does well it could become more permanent, but we're not going to look at that until we know what league we're in and financially where we are for next season. He looks like a player who hasn't played for a little while at first-team level, but he's desperate to get going and has looked sharp and bright. The first thing he did in training yesterday was to pull one out of the air on his chest and smash it from 20 yards, and Macca's (James McKeown) had to pull off a world-class save to keep it out. I think straightaway the lads have seen what ability he has got. If he starts today I'm sure he'll add something to us. If he comes off the bench I'm sure he'll add something to us, but we're yet to make our decision on what we're going to do."
ON DEADLINE DAY...
" There's not a lot of movement about. We spoke to a couple of people but the difficulty we've got is that we can't say to people 'yes, you're going to start every game' and that's what people want to hear. Realistically you can't guarantee that to anybody. What we've got is a lot of games – eight games in about three weeks – so there's a pretty good chance that they would play a few. Money came into it as well. It's not that we didn't want to spend it, but we didn't want to spend what a couple of clubs were asking, it was silly. Because the clubs that we were asking weren't desperate to get rid of the players, they were asking top-end money for them. Outside of Cleveland, it would have been more a case of bringing a couple in to bolster the numbers, rather than be going in as 100 per cent 'certs' to start. That's why we felt we were better off to stick with what we've got and add quality rather than quantity."
ON PLAY-OFF AMBITIONS...
" I'm not going to accept and I don't want the players to accept everybody saying at the end of the season 'oh well, you did all right. You got to Wembley and you just came up short.' As we said in pre-season, we felt we were good enough to get into the play-offs and if top spot was there we would go for it. We had a pretty bad three or four weeks – not so much the last game and the Wembley game – but results didn't go for us before that. But I think it showed on Tuesday the quality and strength in depth that we've got here, and that we can still push on for a play-off place. We want to go and get maximum points today, Monday and Wednesday. Then we'll look at the following Saturday after that and then there's Tuesday and Friday, and we crack on from there. We want to pick up as many points as we can to cement ourselves in the play-offs."
ON BARROW BUILD-UP...
" We've not done a great deal of training this week because we played on Tuesday, and Wednesday and Thursday was about recovering. Yesterday, they came in and were as they have been when they've won, lost or drawn – they're a good group, they're bubbly, they're desperate to do well in whatever we do. Whatever training session we put on, they look to work hard and look to do the right things. That's all we'll ask of them. Everybody who was involved on Tuesday was exceptional, even the lads that were on the bench. They were encouraging the others and were desperate for the team to get that win. One thing I can guarantee to the fans is that they will be giving their all to get into the play-offs."
ON TOWN'S FANS...
" The players would like to thanks the fans who travelled up to Hartlepool on Tuesday. It was an astounding effort by them after what was a disappointment and a long day for them on Sunday, to then pay the money to get on the coach and for the tickets to go up to Hartlepool to watch us. On behalf of all the staff and the players, we want to thank the fans for that because that's a brilliant effort."
ON LIAM HEARN...
" I don't think Liam is close to a start, that's a long way off. By all accounts, it was two very young teams in action for the Reserves this week. He's still on the road to recovery. Yes, he scored two goals and got through 90 minutes, but I think he was pretty much flat out on his feet at the end. He's still not sharp enough. For someone who's been out seven or eight months to play one-and-a-half Reserve games and then start a first-team game that's a big ask. But he's certainly in the squad and is certainly going to be involved over the next eight games – hopefully 11 games. We said from the outset that if we got anything from Liam, above, before the end of the season it was a bonus. We pretty much thought it was going to be next season and he's come back a little bit earlier than we'd expected. He's had an illness, that's not helped, and he's still feeling a little bit under the weather. So to ask him to start is a step too far at the moment, but he's certainly in our thoughts over the next few games."
