00:01Mark, defeating the National League Cup against Ipswich for plenty of opportunity for young players tonight.
00:06So, good chance for them. How do you feel they acquitted themselves?
00:09They did alright. We did have a go. I think to lose it 5-0 was a little bit frustrating
00:14for us,
00:14but I thought for large parts of the game we acquitted ourselves reasonably well.
00:19Great experience for the young players and it's levels to where they'd like to get to.
00:25Obviously playing against an established Category 1 academy there. Some of their players have got football league experience and have
00:32had loans before.
00:33So, it's always going to be a tough night for us with what we were able to put out there
00:37in terms of team.
00:39We haven't really worked with that group or the three or four first team lads mixing in with the academy.
00:45It's always going to be difficult and their group would have been training with each other all of the time,
00:50probably being together two or three years. So, that's always going to make a difference.
00:54But, you know, we had to play the game. I don't mean that to sound disrespectful to the competition or
01:00to Ipswich.
01:01But, yeah, to be honest with you, it was a game that perhaps we could have really done without tonight,
01:08meaning that in the nicest way possible. And the key thing for us was to make sure that we protected
01:15some of our key players ahead of the weekend.
01:17Yeah, I was going to say, presumably tonight, really, the most important thing, you know, with injuries you've already got
01:22and, you know, looking ahead to a big game at Barnsley was getting through unscathed,
01:26protecting players you could and, as I say, having a clean bill of health, really.
01:30Yeah, I think that was always the main focus. You know, we don't like doing it, but as everyone could
01:35see, we sort of literally made a couple of substitutions after 30 seconds, didn't we?
01:40You know, the rule, I think, perhaps needs to be looked at a little bit. I understand why the sort
01:45of National League and Premier League sort of, you know, want that because they want it to be a competitive
01:50game.
01:51But I think it's, you know, perhaps we need to look at that sort of scheduling. It's okay for the
01:56clubs in the National League who have got bigger squads,
01:58but we've only got sort of a squad of sort of 21 players and with four or five injuries and
02:03big games ahead of this and after it, it's always going to be difficult for us.
02:08But we have tried to respect the competition as much as we possibly could so far.
02:13But tonight, I think it was just with the timing and that, you know, we had to be careful.
02:18But, you know, a lot learned, again, you know, some good players Ipswich have got and it's always good to
02:23look at the best youngsters sort of, you know, in and around the area.
02:28So, yeah, we just sort of move on now to day off for the boys tomorrow and then we'll be
02:33in Thursday, Friday prepping for Barnsley.
02:36Yeah, I mean, Barnsley, I mean, that's just a real game for everyone to look forward to really, isn't it?
02:41Yeah, we obviously go there with the underdogs, you know, so we've got nothing to lose, really.
02:47We can go and give it a go. Obviously, you know, it's going to be a challenge because the two
02:53levels of Barnsley are above us,
02:55you know, obviously there for a reason and it's a big club, Barnsley, really.
02:59So, great game for us. You know, Oakwell's a ground that I think most of our players haven't really been
03:05to before.
03:05So, it's something new for them and hopefully we can go out up there and give a really good account
03:10of ourselves
03:11and see if we can, you know, cause an upset.
03:14And a day for the supporters to look forward to. You've obviously sold quite a few tickets already.
03:17Yeah, I think we have. I think Scott was telling me that he'd heard we'd sold over 600 and hopefully
03:22there's a couple more days to go.
03:23So, we know the Aldershot fans always, you know, back us and good away following.
03:28So, hopefully we can get a few up there and more importantly, try and give them something to cheer about.
03:34So, we're looking forward to the day and let's hope we can get through the next couple of days with
03:39no silly knocks or anything in training
03:41and we can try and field, you know, full strength side on Saturday.
03:45I'll see you next week, on Saturday.
03:45So, see ya later!
03:45Just a day.
03:45Bye!
