Paul Simpson spoke to us ahead of Saturday’s game against Oxford United.
“I think they’re a good side,” he said. “Liam Manning had a good group of players and they’ve had a real go to try and get promotion this season. They have a style of play where they try to be possession based so we’re fully expecting it to be a tough game.
“They’ve lost a couple of players, with the main one being their goalkeeper going back to Brighton then back out to Sheffield Wednesday. There’s been changes but I don’t think it will massively disrupt their team because they’re quite settled in the shape they play and the main players they have.
“They are an established settled League One side, they are a club that are desperately trying and having a right go to get out of this league. And I know when I spoke to Liam Manning, when we played at their place, that they’re having a real go this season to get out. So that's the challenge that we've got to stand up to, we've got to be able to face that.
“Their league position shows that they've done really well this season. Our league position shows we haven't done well enough, but this is the next game that we can start to change it and we need to change it very, very quickly. Because otherwise we are going to run out of games and that's not something anybody wants.
“Whatever happens, this will be a tough game. We need to roll our sleeves up and make sure we’re right. We need to start our recovery as soon as possible because we don’t want to be where we are, we don’t want to be in this position. We certainly want to be in League One, we earned the right to be here and we have to do everything we possibly can to stay here. The staff know it, the players know if, and the time is coming where we need to do something about it.
“The truth is, we know the situation we’re in and we know where we are after 26 games isn’t where we want to be. We’ve got to make sure we do everything we possibly can, however that happens. If it’s through working harder or better football or being more clinical in both boxes, whatever it takes. We’re fully aware we need to start winning games of football and this weekend will be a great time to start."
After missing last weekend’s trip to Exeter, Owen Moxon will be available for selection after recovering from a dead leg.
“Owen Moxon did a little bit of training on Tuesday and trained fully on Wednesday, so he’s available for the weekend,” the manager confirmed.
“Ben Barclay is still struggling a little bit, he had an injection early on in the week to see if it would settle down so he’s still a bit sore from that. Saturday might come too soon for him. It was positive news in terms of the scan that he had which showed everything was clear, but he’s still got a bit of nipping going on in his knee joint so we’ll just continue to assess that as we go over the next few days.
“JJ still isn’t fully fit. It’s a little bit of a blow because when you’re out for so long you expect there to be a hiccup or a setback and that’s what he’s had, it was just unfortunate that it happened the day before he was going to be reintroduced back into the squad. We still don’t think it’s a major issue but he’s still getting discomfort, so he’s another we’re assessing each day. As soon as he goes pain free, we can get him back into the work.”