Cobblers boss on Saturday's trip to Southend
Cobblers boss Aidy Boothroyd knows Saturday’s trip to Southend will be a tough test for his side. The Shrimpers have a 100% record in Sky Bet League 2 so far this season, winning both games without conceding a goal.
“Southend have had a good start and we know it will be difficult,” he said.
“I think throughout the season we are going to have to play a variety of formations at different times in games in order to get results.
“First and foremost it is important that we are resilient and our away record is something we can improve enormously upon from last year. You do that by being resilient and tough but you also need to have a goal threat.
“We perhaps didn’t look that much of a goal threat at York but I think now we have got a bit more height and strength in the side we might cause Southend a few more problems than we did York.
“There are a number of reasons as to why I think we didn’t do particularly well away from home last year, we had our moments but there weren’t anywhere near enough moments to get us the points that we needed.
“My recruitment this year has been more about getting players who can give us a bit more variety in winning games while still maintaining the physical strength and power that we had last season.
“We scored a lot of goals from set plays last year but I think we’ve shown this year already that we are also more than capable of scoring from open play as well.
“You need everyone to contribute with goals, Roy and Jacob have struck up a very good partnership and I think we saw last year that when Roy and Clive played together we won a lot of games and they were very difficult to play against.
“I’ve always had a lot of faith in Roy, he is a goalscorer and the more games he gets the better he is going to be. He can play up front on his own but he much prefers to have someone alongside him.
“Jacob is a good player and I think we will be really good for him. I don’t think his fitness levels are anywhere near where near where they can be but that will come.
“One of the biggest stumbling blocks that young players have is finding that consistency and it’s the really good players who can be consistent week in week out.
“We are still finding out about him but I have to say initially I am very pleased with what he’s done and he definitely gives us a different dimension in how we play.”
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