At his pre-match press conference, manager Teddy Sheringham spoke about this week’s signings and how recent injuries and call ups in midfield was the main reason for Connor Smith’s arrival.
“We got another injury to Schumacher on Saturday which will probably be two, three weeks. McAllister is out for another two or three weeks and Dale Gorman is away on international duty with the U21s in Ireland so we don’t really have a defensive midfielder player around.
“So I brought in Connor Smith - he is very hard working, gets about the pitch, good on the ball and hopefully he can keep things ticking over for us.”
Jack Jebb was another arrival after being on trial with us for about a month and Teddy explained why he brought him in permanently.
“He has got qualities - he can score goals from midfield and I want him to produce what he produces out there on the training pitch. That is attacking play, good flair play, scoring goals and making goals in the opposition third.”
Club captain, Ronnie Henry is yet to play this season after suffering from mumps and Teddy says he is now almost ready for action.
“Ronnie Henry has been training for the past 10 days but he has lost a lot of weight with having mumps.
“He has got to put weight on, normally with footballers you are trying to get the weight off them at some stage but we have to get his back on and firing on all cylinders before he is included really.”
After scoring at Dagenham last Saturday, Tom Hitchcock will be vying for a starting place this weekend against Plymouth – the final game of his initial loan spell.
Teddy is hopeful that his stay will be extended.
“We are working on it. I like what he gives us; hopefully we can sort something out with MK Dons for him to stay a bit longer.”
Finally, Teddy says that the team will have to be on their game come Saturday as high-flying Plymouth come to town.
“I am hoping for three points, simple as that. I know it will be a very tough game – Plymouth are rolling with a lot of confidence at the moment.
“I think they have got maximum points from all their away games, but it is a fixture that we shouldn’t be frightened of – we are playing at home and we need to go out there and perform to the best of our capabilities. We need to excite the crowd, get them on our side and move forward together.
“We are far from the finished article. We have been doing a lot of work this week and I am sure we will have more work to do after Saturday’s game.
“We are all in it together and we want to make things right. We know it hasn’t been fantastic as of yet and we need to be better – that is what we will be working to do.”