Gary Megson Looks Ahead To Tomorrow

Last updated : 25 February 2011 By Thetashkentterror

Wednesday boss Gary Megson
Owls manager Gary Megson spoke to the Sheffield Star and his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, Megson seemingly set to choose the same starting eleven for the game that drew 0-0 at Bournemouth on Tuesday evening :


"You can't reward a player for a good performance and an honest performance by handing them a rest in my view. If you ask every one of them, they would say they wouldn't want that and they won't get that. Tommy (Miller) worked his socks off. He knows the game, he's an honest lad and has a lot of personality; that's why I made him captain. It's a big plus to have him back. He talks and he has a great desire to do well.

"I didn't have that choice while he was injured and Clinton (Morrison) was made captain. We have a few people who can do the job. I don't want to be saying someone is captain, full stop. We want to be able to give it to different people, as and when.

"The clean sheet was better, the attitude was better. The honesty was there for everyone to see. Our people who came all this way will have been pleased with the commitment. Some of the chances we had, you'd expect us to be scoring. It's a bit late in the season, but it's a starting point. We're not going to get carried away and say we've turned the corner. But it's much better.

"Because of our frailty at the back, I wanted to make us more solid in the middle. It put a huge onus on Gary Madine; he did brilliantly. Gary has everything: size, touch, goals; he's got to get better in every aspect, and he will do because he's a young lad.

"He did ever so well at Bournemouth and showed the best bit of skill I've seen for a long, long time. Nicky Weaver kicked the ball downfield and when Gary brought it down it was like a butterfly with sore feet landing on his foot. He's a got a good chance to have a really good career in football if he sorts out one or two things.

"We've spoken to him about things off the field; he's improving the things he does on the field. He's got something to prove to the Wednesday supporters; he's not been here that long. He's 20; he's got to keep pushing."



"It's about all the players though, it's not about formations. In any football club, there's only one thing that takes you forward and that is the group of players and how they play. Of course managers help, coaching staff help, boards help and supporters help, but what ultimately decides whether you succeed or fail is your group of players.

"We were playing one up front against Bournemouth but when the ball was in their box, that's the last thing we wanted - we were expecting five up front and at times we got it. It's all about the players and the work rate they put in, the honesty they show and we couldn't have had any complaints as far as those things were concerned on Tuesday.

"We're looking to have a good start to games, we're looking for clean sheets, we're looking to score the first goal and we're looking for wins. There are different ways of how we can do it but that's ultimately what we want to do.

"We don't do a huge amount on the opposition; we do as much as we can on ourselves. Yes, you need to know what formation they might be playing and if they have anything sexy at a set-piece, like Bournemouth had - which we told them about, and we got caught! - but I'm not one of these who goes into the ins and outs of every single team, because it's about our players and what they do.

"Anyway, you don't, in my view, want players' heads filled with what the opposition can and can't do. We showed the players our set-pieces, One of the things I find strange at times is you're concentrating on the opposition - and this isn't a criticism. At Bolton we had three IT people, fully used; that was their job. It was really top drawer. But we didn't do a huge amount on it. I think sometimes you can paralyse by analysis. I wouldn't want to do that.

"You don't choose to support Sheffield Wednesday, it chooses you. It's a family thing. It's gone on here for years and years. For some of the players, that's new to them. What we've go to do is to show appreciation of how much they put into following the club.

"Some of these people will have been to Rochdale, Tranmere, Birmingham and Bournemouth and will be going up to Carlisle. They're our biggest asset by a street; we have to show it's appreciated and try to bring everything else at the club up to their standard."