Coles aiming for a league double against Aldershot
Ahead of this weekend’s fixture at home against Aldershot, City skipper Danny Coles spoke about the ambitions of doing a league double over the Shots, as well as assessing the lessons learned from the Torquay defeat on Monday.
Having dominated possession and opportunities against the Gulls, City were unable to peg the visitors back after Rene Howe’s early penalty. After the game Tis had called for his side to show a little more patience rather than trying to force the issue, and Danny echoed the sentiments.
“We dominated both games we had against Torquay without really looking like scoring,” said Coles. “We did everything that we could, but it was one of those days when the ball wasn’t going to go in the back of the net unfortunately.
“Tis drums into us that you don’t have to win it in the first five minutes of any game, or any half. You’ve got a whole 93 or 94 minutes to get a goal, and when you get one it only takes a few seconds to get another.”
Monday’s derby was a case in point that the first goal can often feel all-important at the Park, but Danny is hoping that any set-backs that the side encounter in future games will be greeted with the correct response, despite the resolve that visiting teams show on their trips to Devon.
“Teams set up a certain way to play against us, and when we give them the one goal it gives them something to hold onto,” he continued. “I find that for teams in this league, that’s one thing they’re probably good at doing – being disciplined, dying for the cause, and chucking their bodies in the way of things.
“If it’s us that gets the first goal, then the likelihood that it’s us that going to go on and get a second and third, because teams have to throw caution to the wind a little bit and that’s when we pick teams off.
“We probably could have been a bit more patient on Monday night, and that’s something we’ll be looking to change in the next home game if we are behind at any point.”
The Shots have already been visitors once this season – triumphing on penalties in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy – and City triumphed in the reverse league meeting at the Recreation Ground. But with the last meeting coming back in September, Danny isn’t particularly concerned with those past results.
“They’ve got some new players since the time we played them; they’re a side that like to play football, which is something they’ll be trying to do when they come to us. We’ll be looking to do the double over them with regards to league games.
“So we’ll be working on them, but we’ll be letting them worry more about us rather than us worrying about them too much.”
And with the Shots being moments away from earning a replay from Championship heavyweights Middlesbrough last weekend, with Lukas Jutkiewicz breaking their hearts deep into stoppage time after Danny Hylton looked to have earned a draw, Danny feels that the performance and final result could have a psychological effect on Dean Holdsworth’s charges.
“When you go to a top Championship club like that, and you’re a couple of minutes from getting a result, you’ve got to take a lot of confidence from that. But you look at Bradford – they beat a Premier League one Tuesday and then lost to a League 2 team on a Saturday – so sometimes it can take the stuffing out of you a little bit.
“They’re scrapping for points, so they’re in a battle down there. And we’re in our own little battle at the top of the league and we see this as a good opportunity to get three points to take us into the next game.”