Peter Taylor well aware of the threat Sheffield United will pose after recent run of form
Peter Taylor believes Sheffield United will provide dangerous opposition this evening as the Blades look to climb out of the relegation zone in Sky Bet League One.
Nigel Clough’s men visit MEMS Priestfield Stadium having booked their place in the Quarter Finals in the FA Cup on Sunday after a 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest, but Peter is adamant three points will be at the forefront of their minds as they prepare for the game.
:club’s official website he saidSpeaking to the "Whatever happened at the start of the season wasn’t right; the players maybe didn’t adjust to League One Football which is tough.
“This is where Sheffield United are still a dangerous opponent, if they were half way in the table now just having this cup run they would be really concentrating on the cup, but being in the position they are in they’re no fools.
“Nigel will be saying the priority, even if they played Wednesday or Charlton in the next round; they would prefer the three points to that result.
“It’s important for us to stay in League One too and we need to make sure our house is in order.
“We would prefer to play on the Tuesday because it gives you more time to get over it for the Saturday match but the lads have trained well.
“Chris Whelpdale will definitely be in the squad, he is looking good and has a chance.”
Peter doesn’t believe Danny Kedwell will feature for the club until early next month, although the striker has recently returned to training.
He said: “Bristol City is the earliest time that we might see Danny Kedwell but he is working hard and we are near on having a fully fit squad which is good news for us.
“Danny feels the hernia situation is good but since the operation he hasn’t done much training, he certainly hasn’t trained much with the first team apart from Tuesday so it’s unrealistic to think he could be involved any earlier than Bristol City and even that might be too early.
“We do have to calm him down and at the moment while we are scoring enough goals I am not in a mad panic because Joe and Bayo have done well – Cody is in good form and when Craig has been playing he’s done great so we are very fortunate to have four players in good form.
“We want to be careful with Danny and when he comes back I want him to be absolutely spot on and be as fit as he’s ever been.”
The gaffer said he has a rough idea on who will start the game against United, but hasn’t yet named the team.
He added: “The lads roughly know what we are going to start with; we have done some work and a lot of set pieces in the last couple of days.
“I do chop and change a little bit and I do make sure there are two players for every position that know what they are doing just in case it’s A or B who is playing.
“I’m very clear on who is starting and who is on the bench and it’s a strong squad.
“The good thing is that players are also realistic – if it means they know that Cody for instance is in such good form then you will have no problems from other players thinking why is he playing rather than me.
“They will all get a chance at the right time, it’s not a case of it being the same front two or three all the time – we are always going to change to give people an opening to show what they can do.
“We have had good backing form the Chairman who has allowed us to get the squad of players, we have two, I think, good players in every position now and that’s very important for us in these last 15 matches.”