Barnett set to miss match on Saturday
Neil Cox said that Tyrone Barnett will miss Saturday’s trip to Port Vale with a hip injury that he suffered in midweek.
In an interview for Dons Player, Neil added that one or two youngsters may be pushing for places, along with Jon Meades, who was substitute in the win against Rochdale.
“Tyrone is struggling with his hip after the other night so he will miss this weekend,” said Neil. “Jon Meades is hopefully going to be fit enough to come into the squad again and one or two young lads may come into the reckoning. We have to be fair to everybody else though because a lot of teams are fighting for their lives. We cannot just go there and play nine young lads. We have to play a squad that will be ready to win the game and that’s what we will do. We were in the bottom two or three in League 2 at this stage four years ago and clubs played their best teams against us.
“We’ve got to the points total we were looking to get at the end of the season with six games remaining, but we are looking forward to every game. There is a big drive among the squad to get to a certain points tally. We might chop and change one or two players, but we will not over-do it because players have got to get ready for next season as well.”
With Port Vale currently fourth from bottom in League One, Neil is expecting a tough tussle on Saturday, particularly knowing the mentality of their manager Michael Brown.
“He was a feisty midfielder who put his foot in and he scored goals from midfield in his latter days with Tottenham and Sheffield United,” said Neil. “I think he will get his team going and hopefully they will go on a good run of form after we’ve played them. I have known ‘Browny’ a long time, he is going to get them organised. The most important time in your managerial career is the first six months of your job and if he keeps them in the league and builds for next year he will have done a great job.
“He is a born-winner and he will want his team to go out and win football matches. That will start on Saturday so we will have to be tactically aware, see how they set-up, and be prepared for the game. They are fighting for their lives so we will have to be on the ball and set our stall out early doors. There are lots of targets for us to play for.”
The full interview with Neil Cox is now on Dons Player and also featured is a chat with Darius Charles, who talks about his eventful first year with AFC Wimbledon after joining us last March.