By Chris Slavin
Neil Cox was encouraged by the performances of returning pair Jon Meades and Harry Forrester in last night’s Checkatrade Trophy defeat and he believes they can make a difference in the coming weeks.
Speaking to iFollow after the 2-1 Southern Group F defeat at home to Luton Town, Neil said: “The main thing was getting Jon Meades and Harry Forrester through the game. Harry can create chances. He created two or three, including setting up Lyle’s goal, and he had a couple of half chances himself. We just need to get him up to match speed. He is working hard in training and in the games. The more time that we get him on the pitch, the better it will be for us.
“Jon probably played for 15 minutes more than we wanted him to, but he felt all right. We took him off in case and then we lost our shape a little bit after that. It’s also good to see ‘Meadesy’ back. He can play in a number of positions. I think it’s good for everybody that an experienced player is coming back into our team.”
Neil felt that the team lost their shape in the second-half and that allowed Luton to take control of the match.
“We had a look at a different formation,” added Neil. “We tried something out and they changed against us. It was difficult for us to understand why our boys did not get into the game after that, but overall I thought it was a good performance. When we made the changes it was difficult because ‘Meadesy’ was doing well in there. We tried to change it a little bit by playing Egli wide, but Harry had to come off too. It was difficult, but I thought we created enough chances on the night to get something out of the game.”
Neil confirmed afterwards that Lyle Taylor was taken off due to injury, but he is hopeful that it will not be serious.
“It is a calf problem and we had to be cautious with him. We took Lyle off straight away, as soon as we knew. Let Stuart Douglas do his job and hopefully Lyle will be fit for Saturday.”
Extended highlights from last night’s match are on our iFollow channel.