We spoke to Mark Hughes, ahead of the Good Friday contest with Port Vale.
Speaking to CUTV, Mark began by talking about the week so far, following the win over Morecambe: “It's been very good as you would imagine on the back of two wins, which we haven't been able to do for quite some time so you can imagine this week's been good in terms of the atmosphere around around the place and within the group so yeah we're looking forward to the next opportunity to play now.”
The Blues secured back-to-back victories for the first time in over two years with the 2-0 win over the Shrimps.
“I think just you can see in the last two games certainly that there's a lot of belief in the squad that we can turn this situation around.
“We're obviously at the business end of the season so we know what's ahead of us and what we have to do so it's pretty straightforward in terms of the targets leading into games we've just got to do our maximum and try and get maximum results.”
United face a tough test on Friday, with Port Vale arriving as league leaders; off the back of four straight wins. Mark spoke on the task at hand: “They’re a good side they've been on a great run and they have a set way of playing, they understand what's required at this level and they go about their business in a really strong and effective way so a lot of the stuff they do we're going to have to match and make sure that when we can play when we can get the ball down then that's when we've got to try and hurt them.”
Mark maintained though that it’s about what his side can do, rather than focusing too much on the opponents.
“I think that's the best strategy from our point of view we just we can affect what we can do if we do that well then that affects the opposition so we're concentrating on what we can do to have a good performance and cause problems for any kind of opposition regardless of how they approach the game it's more about us dictating to them rather than the other way around if we can help it.”
On injuries, Mark began by talking about Paul Dummett:
“Dummy's back with the group now, it's great to see him out there, he's a good guy as well around the group so that's important for us. It’s still early days and he hasn't had any game time clearly but just seeing him out with the group is encouraging for him and for us.
On Josh Williams, Mark said:
“He's been on the grass, we're easing him back but like I said if there's any concerns given that he's got a significant injury then we'll go easy on that.”
Mark also spoke about Sam Lavelle, who returned to the bench for the match against Morecambe:
“Sam is managing his ankle, he’s still got a lot of swelling so it's difficult for him at the moment. On occasions it just catches him so that's something that we'll just have to manage through to the completion of the season.”
Georgie Kelly completed back-to-back 90 minutes, we asked how he was fairing. Mark responded:
“We've got a certain number of players that we have to manage in terms of their workload and what they're exposed to because clearly if you've had injury problems then you have to do that for the benefit of the players so Georgie is in that group but come game time he's clearly been ready to go and he's coping with the demands of 90 minutes really well at the moment so yep he's had a week of really just understanding where he is, how he feels what he needs to to make sure that he's in in the best shape for for the weekend.”
On the incredible backing at Morecambe, and the importance of a huge crowd at BP, Mark explained:
“Yeah it was great, really important last time out here as well given the circumstances of the game. They stuck with us and we were able to turn it around and I said to the group even today it's the difference between either losing, drawing or winning that game was clearly the support we had from from everybody in the ground so we'll need more of the same and it's going to be a big crowd so that's going to help us we all feel that.
“We're trying to give them something to get behind that's what we've been able to do the last couple of games and we've seen the reaction to that so well it's up to the players up to a point but obviously if there's periods in the game where the momentum shifts then everybody's got to be a little bit patient and wait for us to grab hold of the game again.”
