Perkins and Evans omissions explained as Calderwood hints at more changes
Colin Calderwood admitted Jack Perkins was ‘very unlucky’ be dropped to the bench for Good Friday’s 1-0 defeat at Bradford City.
Perkins’ performances had been a rare shining light for Cobblers before the international break but he did not feature at all on Friday as Dean Campbell and Terry Taylor started in midfield instead, and both men contributed to what was an improved display, even if the end result was the same.
"It was more about coming to a place like Bradford and the team we were up against,” Calderwood explained. “Jack has a huge, huge career in front of him and he was very unlucky not to play - he probably should have played in many ways. I made a choice to go with Dean and Terry so Jack missed out but so did quite a few others. We could have fielded another strong XI if I'm honest and you need that competition.”
Elliott List and Leicester loanee Jake Evans were among those not to feature in the 18 at Valley Parade.
"Listy probably won't be ready for Monday but Jake will definitely be in with the group,” Calderwood added. "The changes we make for Monday's game will reflect the effort of the lads and it'll also be an opportunity for the boys who didn't play (against Bradford). Everyone has to be ready and up for the shift.
"It's not that busy, it's just like going from Saturday to Tuesday, which is normal for us. We'll train on Saturday and we'll get a team out and we'll try and turn the tide a little bit. We'll block out all the noise, work on the things that need working on and the improvement we showed has got to help, but that's just the basic, low-level stuff for any team.”
Reflecting further on Friday’s defeat, Calderwood continued: "We have to make it more difficult because we're contributing far, far too much to the opposition's chances. There are little habits that become nature and what we have to do is work on it in training and then bring it out onto the pitch and we'll be better.
"How we lost the goal, that's something we worked on in the week and we have to go back to the training pitch and make our habits better. It's rinse and repeat. A lot of it is to do with coaching.
"It was a committed performance and much improved and there are positives but we have to play with a bit more spite and there needs to be more cohesion and we can be so much better in so many ways – brighter, more inventive, cleaner, quicker.
"We want to see the players' personality and that's something we stressed during the week. Mansfield was a poor reflection on them and Friday was a step in the right direction. We were more of a threat but we still need to execute better in the final third.”