Mike Percival’s Pre-Match Thoughts
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With the Gloucester City match just around the corner, Sam Watts spoke to First Team Coach Mike Percival.
Mike said the most important target is to look for a win against Gloucester City.
“The great thing about football is that if you can get a win straight after a loss, the previous result tends to go into the distance. It’s all about picking ourselves back up and going again to get those 3 points.”
After a disappointing loss against a stronger Torquay side, Mike believed Stones could have managed the game in a better manner.
“We spoke about game management. In stoppage time whatever the score is, not to concede, that was obviously the most disappointing thing about yesterday. Then after speaking about starting the second half strongly, to concede from a very soft goal was the same. It happens in football, it wasn’t our day but luckily, we have less that 48 hours to try and rectify that against Gloucester.”
He was clear that you can’t have a ‘must win’ game this early in the season, but said it is key to get all three points.
“I never like to say it’s a ‘must win’, however we can gather momentum. The important thing is to just bounce back tomorrow and if we perform well, we stand a good chance of winning the game. This early on in the season, we have to stay in and around so we’d just want the 3 points.”
Mike spoke about the impact of Bradley Hudson Odoi and the competition between the three Stones strikers.
“Bradley came on and affected the game. He’s been training brilliantly and he’s very much the type of player that is all about momentum. If he’s training sharply and playing well then he’ll be on top of his game. We would like to see all three of them on the pitch at once but it all depends on the shape we go with. If we have to leave one on the bench for balance, they will understand that.”
Matthew Lench finally got his chance against Torquay after impressing in training.
“We have been desperate to give Matthew Lench his chance. Even if Wadah [Ahmidi] was still here, he would have been in the team because he trained well. Bobby is a firm believer that if you train well, you play. He did well yesterday amongst a few knocks in a tight game.”