We must be pitch perfect in Cardiff, says County boss
MICHAEL Flynn has told his players there can be no excuses when they head to Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday night to face Bradford in the first of two ‘home’ games on a pristine surface.
Ever since they lost top spot in League Two at the start of the year there have been more words written about the poor state of their Rodney Parade pitch than anything else. Two wins in their last 15 games only tells part of the story.
But after making the long trip to Colchester today (3pm) they will be itching to prove they can still make up lost ground and turn what looked so promising in the first half of the campaign into a fairy tale ending.
“I’m honest enough to admit the points total over the last few months hasn’t been good enough, but it’s not all doom and gloom.” said Flynn.
“We can still have a fantastic season and I’ve still got faith in this group of players. There are a lot of factors that have contributed to our demise and when that happens a little bit of confidence goes.
“We raised the level of expectations with our great start to the season, but if you had offered me the points total and the position we are in now before we’d kicked a ball I think everyone at the club would have taken it.”
More than anything the players need to taste victory again and Colchester would be the perfect place to start before taking on Bradford on a grass, rather than mud and sand, pitch on Tuesday night.
Not that it will be easy, Flynn certainly knows that.
The two teams have an almost
identical record in recent months with only two wins each in their last 15 games.
Colchester are down in 20th place, but will go into the game against County buoyed by their 2-1 home win over Carlisle in midweek when hot-shot Callum Harriott struck twice to take his goal tally for the season to eight in a 2-1 win.
“Colchester just got their first home win since the beginning of December, so they will be up for it. It’s going to be another difficult day,” said Flynn.
“We have gone from being a brilliant team to a mediocre one at the moment, although I’d be much more concerned if we were being played off the park and not creating chances.
“We need to cut out errors and take our chances.
“The news about playing at Cardiff City Stadium has been well received by the players, but I told them they straight away there can be no excuses when we play on a surface like that. Will it give us an advantage?
“We’ll have to see if win them to gauge that. I’m just grateful to Mark Jones at Rodney Parade, Cardiff City and the EFL for allowing us to move two matches.”