GRIMSBY Town joint boss Rob Scott reflects on a good week so far for the Mariners, ahead of tomorrow's visit of Southport...
ON THE LAST TWO RESULTS...
" They've been a big boost, of course it has because confidence was a little bit low and that's understandable with the results that we've had. It hasn't been the fault of anything in particular, it's just the way things have gone for us. Sometimes when results conspire against you and things aren't going your way then your confidence takes a knock. It wasn't just the result at Stockport that gave us the boost but the way we got it. It wasn't particularly pretty and we didn't play flowing football, but it was a result that was won by people putting their bodies on the line against a team that's scrapping for survival. It was a big win for us and the lads' confidence has shot up after that and then we followed that up with what was another fairly comfortable win at Macclesfield last night. Confidence is starting to seep back in and hopefully we're hitting a bit of form at just the right time."
ON TOMORROW'S GAME...
" It's been a good week for us so far and we want that to continue. We want to pick up as many points as we can and we'd like to get another win at home tomorrow. We've picked up two wins on the road, helping us to take seven points from a possible nine and we want to keep that going. We're going to go into the game with the same focus of getting another three points and if we reach the sort of levels that we did against Macclesfield, we'll be in with a good chance. It's vital that everybody gets behind us tomorrow and gives us the opportunity to get another three points on the board and another game ticked off. From what's been a bad March, we're hopefully turning that into a good April."
ON SOUTHPORT...
" They started the season quite well and they were up in the top five or six in the table. But their season has changed a little bit in a negative respect of late and they'll be looking to boost their survival hopes on the back of a win on Wednesday. It's been an up-and-down season for them. At one point, their manager was talking about pushing for the Play-Offs and now they find themselves in a bit of a relegation scrap and we'll have to be mindful of that. Teams that are down there – as we saw with Barrow – are fighting for the lives and we'll have to contend with that tomorrow."
ON INJURIES…
" No-one made any initial complaints to Mooro (Physio, Dave Moore) after the Macclesfield game. Craig Disley took a bit of a knock to his ankle and he's carrying a few war wounds at the moment but that's how it is at the minute. We all know the fixture congestion has been horrific but what we have got is a number of games where the opposition has had the same number of games so we can't complain about things being stacked against us. Everybody is on a level playing field. We have a very fit squad and you don't feel tired when you're winning – it's only when you lose that you start to feel those little niggles and aches and pains. As we stand, everybody is okay for Saturday but we'll assess it a bit more today before we make any decisions."
ON POTENTIAL CHANGES…
" We've been fortunate in that when we've rotated the squad this week, it hasn't had a detrimental effect on us. We made a couple of changes at Macclesfield, where Aswad (Thomas) came in for Woody (Bradley Wood), who did an excellent job at Stockport, but we wanted to freshen things up. That's the only reason we're doing it – it's not performance-related it's all to do with keeping things fresh and giving us that little bit of a spark. Cleveland (Taylor) came in for us at Macclesfield and gave us that little bit of experience. Away from home, he gave us that little bit of nous and did the simple things to help us. Frankie (Artus) also came in and I thought he was excellent again following his Wembley performance. We've got good players sat in the stands at the minute, which we don't like to do, but it's something that we have to do in order to keep the squad fresh. We'll continue to look at who needs a rest and mix things about, because we want to pick up as many points as we can, as soon as possible. ON THE RACE FOR PLAY-OFFS
" People say we only need three wins and we'll be there and it sounds really easy when you say it like that! Obviously we want to win them all and we'll have to assess where we are when we've got enough points to confirm. If it has to go down to the last game – even though we don't want it to – so be it. We're just focusing on picking up as many points as possible in these last five games."
