Following yesterday’s 2-1 win at Oxford City, we spoke to Assistant Head Coach Jack Salkeld as he assessed yesterday’s performance, talked about bouncing back and gaining momentum and looks ahead to the game against Marine next weekend.
Speaking on yesterday’s game and the reaction following the disappointing FA Cup result at Chester last weekend, Jack described the nitty gritty performance to see out the win and bounceback from the Chester game, which he mentioned they were still hurting from and apologised to the fans for last week, stating ‘it wasn’t good enough.’ – watch his match reaction: HERE
With four changes in the starting line-up from last week, Jack revealed the thought process and the set-up going into the game:
‘I think when you look at the Chester game and you concede five goals you’ve got to look at yourselves and you’ve got to do something about it & do something different.’
‘We dropped Joel Amado last week and he’s come in today and he was probably one of the best players – he was outstanding – and Jordan Richards came back into the team, I don’t have to say much on Jordan, he gives you everything each week and he is an outstanding football player for this club.
Speaking on the early goal scored by Tony Weston and the confidence boost an early goal gave the team, Jack mentioned how it was imperative they reacted, started bright and started early, on the front foot.
He said, ‘I thought we did that really well and it did settle us down and give us a bit of confidence going forward.
Goalscorer and Curzon number 10, Tony Weston, scored his 4th goal of the campaign after only 4 minutes, Jack described his work ethic, his relentlessness and how he never stopped working.
‘We brought Tony in to score goals and he’s always going to get good chances, we put him up there today with Jimmy Spencer, and I though that was Jimmy’s best game – a lot of the work went through Jimmy and he created a lot of chances.’
Following Oxford City’s equaliser at the beginning of the second half The Nash went ahead through Ben Darby on the 77th minute, speaking on what would be the match winner, Jack commented;
‘That’s the reaction we needed after last week (we don’t want to keep going on about it, it’s gone now) after Oxford equalised – it was a poor goal – the lads didn’t dip, they created more chances, they kept on going and Ben Darby was there at the right time and scored a great header.’
‘I’m just happy for the fans and directors, it’s been a tough week for the football club, we’ve got to be positive and we’ve shown what we are about and we can get the result we needed.’
Finally, looking ahead to next weekend and the trip to the Marine Travel Arena, Jack spoke about Curzon Ashton’s previous form playing away from home. He described how they will take confidence and momentum from today’s game into next week.
‘It’s going to be a tough game and they play some really good football but like we say, we’re going to be confident from today, have a good week in training and give Marine the full respect needed, we will have a game plan and hopefully we can get that win.’
Match tickets for next weekend’s game away at the Marine Travel Arena can be purchased online: HERE
