 Brought to you by DIS keeping companies connected with cloud-based solutions. Come on, City! Colin, good to chat with you again. Can I start by actually getting some team news, if I may, and getting an update on the situation with Danny Rowe. I know there was hope that he may make Tuesday and the effects of his cold over the weekend seemingly ruling him out. Are you hopeful that he'll be back and available for Saturday? Yeah, I think for Danny it's worked in his favour, the game obviously being off against scumfork. So the more days that he's in the building and training, he gives him a better opportunity to be in the squad, yeah. Billy Clark was ruled out of Tuesday. Is that a similar case for Salford? Yeah, no movement on that one. Billy's just been out there running today, but he's probably a little bit too soon for him, but again we're just assessing and monitoring him at this moment in time. As well as that, Richard O'Donnell, I know that he was getting closer with his injury and he's been back in training. How are things progressing with his situation? No, Richard has made a really, really good recovery, sort of before we thought to be fair, but he's been out and I think he's doing a full weeks training. He sort of did the last tender last week and now he's having a four weeks training and it'll do him well. So hopefully he's going to be back to full fitness, yeah. So Salford too soon or maybe getting into this Richard O'Donnell? I think our interest to protect Rich, he's had a tear, so we need to look after him and make sure that we're not bringing him too early. So he'll look to be around the squad, but again we'll have to assess. I'll just pick up on the final bits in terms of team use. The noticeable absentees, the long-term ones. I know, again, Reese has been back in training. Is he getting closer to a position or an inclusion in the squad? And indeed, Brysos, Anna and Lino, back one of their situations. And the closest one is Reese. So Reese is back to full training. He came in light training, didn't have any reaction to his previous injury. So he was given the green lighter to come back to full training. So again, it's a little bit similar to any play that's had a tear in the muscles. It's about bringing them back up to speed and not bringing them back too early. So we'll just keep monitoring Reese and make sure that when he does come back, the risk of that injury reoccurring is low. You alluded to an earlier point, actually, that I was going to rate, in terms of all these suspending cancellations and movements of fiction. It has meant the long-term absentees potentially haven't missed any games, as initially felt or thought. I know that the schedule is going to be pretty hectic for you on the horizon, but at least it gives you more chance to potentially have more key players available for those fixtures when they are rearranged. I think from what you've seen with the injuries and players coming back, obviously you've got Lee and you've got Bryse, who's probably looking a little bit closer than Lee at the minute. But again, with the games called off, ideally it gives them opportunity to get fit and to be in contention, but we'll see what happens. I think there's going to be a lot of fixtures coming up, that's for sure. How does Tuesday's suspension corner effect training this week, or does it change it at all? It just affects generally what we've done today. We could do a little bit more and put a little bit more through the legs because some players only played 25, 26 minutes in the snow. So yeah, these things happen. It's happened quite a lot recently to us. So again, like we mentioned in the last call, around contingency plans and making sure that we were prepared for lots of different matters. Bizarre circumstances, yes, but speaking to Mark after the game, he certainly saw value in the 30 or so minutes that he'd seen of you as a side and that you had seen a response from Saturday's defeat. OK, yes, the game has been suspended, but is it almost like a free 30 minutes to see how the players reacted and responded to the defeat? Yeah, I think Mark was right. Talked a little bit how we started and what we tried to get back into the side and we're looking out for those little bits and moments that we spoke about. You know, Mark was happy from his side and I certainly was. You know, they're a good side. I think the form is showing that and they've got a lot of injuries that have come back into the squad so it's come for a really good side and they'll be looking to be like us to pick up the points as quick as possible. From a coach's perspective, how are the players responding to all the uncertainty and the changes in fixtures? I know you'll say they're taking it in their stride but it is such a strange season. It really does alter the orthodox as it worked. Yeah, I think you could see the disappointment in the players' face when we told them that the game was going to be called off and the uncertainties when the snow was like a blizzard and the ref finding it hard to try and call the game or have a break or that decision making was tough for him and the players kind of, you know, were a little bit frustrated because they wanted to just go out and play and put a game plan together and go home with three points but from what happened, that wasn't possible and like I said, I think that they're going to be even more encouraged to go into the next game to perform even though the cancellations do happen. I said, if you can still hear me OK, just your thoughts on the discussions that took place on the touch line in that game because there was a lot of discussion, deliberation about what the right steps were to be taken not only with the officials but the opposing dug out as well. Yeah, I think Matt touched a little bit on it, you know, post-match just around player welfare and making sure that the people who were out there were safe and, you know, we're not putting anybody's safety in jeopardy so I think, you know, you couldn't see the lines on the pitch we had players mentioning that they didn't know where the halfway line was the 18-yard box, you know, the keeper's probably thinking if he had to come out and clear something or rush out then potentially he's not quite sure where his box is so I think when you kind of see the pitch and I saw a picture back and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I was like, it was really, really bad so I think the discussions were good because they tried to give it the best opportunity to play obviously they tried the yellow balls, they tried to sweep the lines they tried to colour the lines tried to give us a break so I think they did everything in their power to get the game on but, you know, he couldn't go ahead. Away from that game I wanted to ask you more generally, Conor just about the training styles and methods that you and Mark have implemented we've seen a lot of video footage on the club's social media and indeed watching the pre-game as well the dynamic between you both and seemingly you getting involved a little bit more than Mark so what is that dynamic like and what are your methods and coaching styles? Well, you know, me and Mark have worked together for a number of years now and we've tried to find the balance of what works best for us and, you know, we have a really good relationship on the pitch and our understanding of each other is good and it's nice as a duo to do that and to sort of bounce off each other really well and we've both got our responsibilities and we're clear and concise with whose role is what and timings and things like that so we try and be really organised and we try and replicate the game as much as possible in terms of the intensity and the things that we're working on are going to be replicated into the game so we're just trying to prepare the players and support the players for what they're going to go into against different systems and against different teams so for us it's kind of a normal way to work really Where do you base your theories on what's your education when it comes to football coaching more generally? My own personal one or? Yeah, yeah I think, you know, it's different you know, I was in an academy since 7 and all the way to 18 and ended up going into sort of professional football a little bit and played abroad so I was kind of used to playing different cultures and different teams and things like that just over the years we used to go abroad every year and, you know, you find out as a player and then as a coach you sort of, you know, when I was younger I used to watch a lot of foreign football a little bit more to be fair Serial was the top gun back then so it used to be a Serial but again I think you just build up as you go along and everybody's got their style of play and what they prefer and everybody's different and I think what me and Mark do well is that we're both aligned in how we see football being and we've got kind of a blueprint of what we work from that we try and implement and that we've been trying to do for the past few years but obviously we've got laws to learn and we're learning whilst we're playing against League 2 teams and the different threats they have so we're just constantly evolving and trying to support the players as much as we can Who was your Serial side? It would have to be probably Inter Ronaldo, Recoba and Tauks, yeah That's some names You've just done the point of football internationally and your experience in being in other countries and seeing different methods and styles and stuff Is that amalgamation then of different ways of football culture? I suppose what I'm trying to get at is the way that football is played and coached in different countries Yeah I think it's different because of weather a lot of it as well you probably find you go to the hotter countries and the pressing game is more strategic the hand and blocks of pressing and setting off and it just complements the country that you're from and where I'm not going to say that this league is like the league or anything like that or Serial it's totally different but I think you've just got to try and understand different cultures and learn as much as you can as a coach and if some method that you feel can work be brave enough to try it as well I'm right in saying and correct me if I'm wrong that you guys have brought in another performance analyst in recent times to crunch the numbers a little bit more how much do you lean on those statistics? Yeah we tried to obviously we've got Robbie and Scott who worked tremendously hard the hours that they put in is so much 60, 70, 80 hour weeks constantly helping and supporting me and Mark and the other staff to have what we need to be prepared for the game so it's nice to fall on facts and factual things and to have evidence behind what you're doing and to see if the methods are working so I think your own eyes are important but it's also important to get the factual basis behind it as well How does that dynamic work then? Do you have daily, weekly meetings in terms of getting the numbers up to date and knowing the ins and outs of the game from a numerical perspective? It tends to happen straight after the game sort of on statistics and different sort of scouting reports give you the evidence and things like that and we gather that and go through it and see how it's gone for us, yeah Just a bit of the points on the training sort of things Again I've seen on the clubs videos that they put on social media about the involvement of some of the younger players in your first-team training Sukia, Nikki and Wood for being the examples there How much have you tried to integrate the younger lads into the first-team frame and how much value will that give them? Yeah, as 18s coaches when we saw that players went up and they came back down to the 18s they were learning a lot of things from the first-team players so to give them that experience is huge for their development and they're picking things up from older players and more experienced players and they're taking it down to the academy for them to pass on that knowledge so it's been good to get them to lads in and there's been a couple more as well at times In the same breath, I suppose it gives you an opportunity to see how they fare with that level of quality in training as well? Certainly, yeah and they've not looked out of place so far and as time moves on and they develop physically and as a footballer hopefully they'll be good enough for our first-team but obviously things don't always pan out as simple as sometimes it seems but they've just got to keep working hard for their opportunities Moving on to Saturday and Salford what do you make of them as opposition? They're in good form Yeah, I think we saw the result from the last game certainly the loads of energy and I've been impressed by how they play and what they're trying to implement there at Salford and Richie Wellins is there and obviously he was a good player and a real footballer and likes to get players on the ball and get them playing and have an attacking style of play so I think it's going to be a real big test When you do your analysis and your research on the opposition like Salford City and I know Mark has been asked about this previously in terms of the actual game that Salford City played against Bradford City, 3-0 for them on that day all goals coming in the first half do you look at that game in isolation or Mark answered this in the sense that it wasn't to do with you guys so you kind of put it to one side but will you look back at that game and see how the existing players in that performance responded? We've not done so far obviously Bradford on the night is a completely different system that we've played with this group of players and certain players were available and we brought new players in so I think it would be probably not right for us to go back to that game because we didn't know what had gone on in terms of what the game plan was for Bradford City and Salford have also changed the way that they play and they're playing a different system so I think we're going to generally go off to the more recent games to give us a better idea of their strengths Good luck Bradford, I'll have to thank you for that cheers Thank you Jay, thank you One of the biggest stories that leaked in this week has been the costs on the pay cap how much of an effect can that have on a club like Bradford City? Yeah obviously seeing the news come out regarding the salary cap it probably does change things for other teams but for us at the minute there's not too much that's changing obviously we're in a position now when the transfer window's gone so not much talk has been in today about it And obviously with the way the weather's been and the forecast up to Saturday have you been in pretty constant contact with the ground staff at Planet Parade this week? Yeah we've just been getting updates really on how the pitch is and just sort of what maybe issues are there on things that they've done well on so yeah that's constant communication if anything's wrong we'll get a phone call but again people work hard down there to make sure that the pitch is playable I think it looks at the moment there's no danger of the game up here though Yeah it's fine at the minute hopefully the pad weather stays away even though it's coming quite a lot Thanks very much Good luck Saturday I thought you were sort of talking about obviously the pitch situation and the post-ponements and what have you I mean you touched on it the other day about possibly extending the I think Ryan's said the same thing I mean a few class are sort of saying that this fixture congestion is getting busier and busier and there's a very little leeway now isn't there so it is getting a situation where sooner or later perhaps they might have to make a decision to relieve Yeah it seems that way you know from my side I think I said it mentioned it last time I think you know yourself mentioned it as well regarding the effect that you could have on other things that are going in and on in the summer and things like that but I think you know if things do get a lot worse than they are currently then it's you know there's certain things that the EFL might have to do to come up with a solution but until then we just crack on Well I think it's 21 games and 12 weeks you could have a lot of sort of space there shouldn't there be another you know frozen picture or what long picture or what have you is there? No it's true it's true and I think regarding like the game in the snow is about player welfare and you know things might come into fruition of you know teams are mentioning that they've got players maybe injured or there's too many games but until that happens you know it's probably not right to say Let me say the other parts of the coin as you said about players coming back from injury you know you are going to need every single one and suppose they're missing less games at the moment aren't they so that when it becomes really busy hopefully you've got plenty of options Yeah that's what you want as managers you want you know a clean bill of health and players to come in game by game and you know if people are struggling you've got somebody who's a good player to come in as well so it's sort of a headache to have when you've got a lot of good players in the building but I guess with the strength of the squad it allows us to feel the strong teams even if there's quite a lot of games coming up No obviously you know the team was picked for Tuesday night Tuesday night lasted about half an hour and then obviously didn't happen so to speak I mean you sort of feel a little bit obliged to pick the same team at the weekend or I know if other players are available there's a bit of a conundrum in there do you leave players out when they probably haven't done anything wrong Yeah that's the drama if you've got sort of evidence to back up that there's maybe a potential risk of injury coming into the into the party then maybe that is a warrant for a change in the lineup but again these are the kind of discussions that do take place to make sure that players that are playing they're not playing 490s in a row have enough rest and we're sort of treating that person as an individual to make sure that ultimately they fit for the games One other thing I was going to ask about the other night obviously the game you know is scrapped off the list appearance, don't count all that and yeah Elliot Watts yellow apparently does which is how do you explain that Well it's one that you kind of have to double check again because you know I'm sure it is and then obviously you find out it is a yellow card so it's just one of them things you've just got to get on with it, El's got to get on with it and just make sure that you know he's not picking up too many yellows and he gets a suspension but it's just part of the game it's the rules and we've just got to get on with it I guess You can't sort of have a go at all the rules but it does defy logic slightly when you look at the fixture list and of course that game will never never appear yeah and you know maybe that's a discussion that maybe has to take place within clubs but you know Elliot's been booked and he's got to deal with it Brought to you by DIS Keeping companies connected with cloud based solutions Come on City