Lee Johnson spoke to the press ahead of our cup game against Port Vale. The gaffer mentioned squad rotation, new signings and the importance of a winning culture...
ROTATION
"Obviously, we want to win the game so it's a case of getting that balance between being competitive and resting not so much key players in terms of the name, but those who haven't had many minutes."
MCGEADY/EVANS/STEWART
"Aiden [McGeady] has had the knee injection in pre-season and played at the weekend, but I know what Geads is like and the best way to get him fit is to keep him ticking along and getting minutes. We'll have a look at Corry Evans, we'll have a look at McGeady, we'll have a look at Rosscoe [Ross Stewart], but we have got young players who can come into it."
WINNING CULTURE
"As a coach you get that feeling of relief when you win the first game of the season because you want to send everyone home happy, but very quickly you have to start making decisions again. I'll speak to all the specialists that we've got and get some feedback so we can prepare because it's a game we want to win - we want to build this winning culture."
PRIORITIES
“We want to focus on the league, there's no doubt about that. Last year the Trophy win was really big for us, but we really must prioritise the league in every action that we do this year."
CALLUM DOYLE
"It was a big test for him. He passed one last week in the way he was able to cope with the physicality of Josh Magennis at Hull, and this was an even bigger one. You can never be sure how young players are going to react. Sometimes the legs go a bit to jelly, they can get a little elbow and suddenly crumble. But I think he just grew and grew through the game. His passing ability I think is already as good as anything in the division. Even there, I don't think he had as many line-cutting passes as he normally would. But you could see the two or three diagonals that were full of quality."
YOUNGSTERS
"From about twenty minutes we played some really nice stuff, and that started from him. They adjusted it to try and stop him, but we were still able to get our passing game going. I think early on they probably targeted our left side with two young lads in Callum and Dan Neil, and they grew up really, really quickly and that was the bit that impressed me with two very young players."
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