After a good win against Yeovil Town on Tuesday, Aldershot Town return to Vanarama National League action with another home fixture against Hartlepool United on Saturday afternoon.
Hear what defender Kodi Lyons-Foster had to say in full:
Q: Kodi, a bit different to our usual pre-match, speaking to one of the players looking ahead to this Saturday, a good win against Yeovil (on Tuesday) and Hartlepool on Saturday, what’s your thoughts ahead of the game?
“We go into it full of confidence. I think we’re not going to lay down and give them three points, we’re going to go out there and give it our all and try and give them the best game we can. We’re aware they’re in good form but we’ll be looking to put a stop to their run of late.”
Q: It was an important game Tuesday wasn’t it? We had Yeovil, bad run of form, people would’ve thought we should win that game and arguably those are the games we’ve struggled in this season. So to come into that and get a 2-0 win, would’ve been good for you guys to get the result?
“I think we needed because we’ve had results recently that haven’t really gone the way we wanted them to, so yeah a comfortable win and a clean sheet is always of benefit as well!”
Q: As a defender, it must be good to get another clean sheet under your belt for this season?
“I think that’s the 12th clean sheet this season as a squad which is good and an improvement from last season and we’ll be looking to get another one at the weekend.”
Q: For yourself personally, a lot of people would say you’ve had a much better season this season, what do you think has changed for this season in comparison to last?
“I think I’ve come in with a different mindset this season, obviously it’s been tough and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect over the Covid break and as a squad I think we’ve been a lot better.
“I’ve played with Giles (Phillips), Jamie (Sendles-White) and (Alex) Finney at times, so I think we’ve built good partnerships and I’ve enjoyed every minute this season.”
Q: Looking at Hartlepool this weekend, a familar figure for us in Brad James returning to the club, he’s said he’s still quite close to some of the lads here so it must be nice to see him but ultimately, you’ll want to go out there and get three points.
“We know Brad well enough and he’s a top lad, I also know a couple of the other Hartlepool players personally, but we’ll be looking to put a few past Brad on Saturday!”
Q: Injury-wise, it’s been a bit of an up-and-down season for us, a lot of players have been looking to stay fit but the players who have come in have done well and with Josh Rees’ injury on Tuesday he may be a bit of a doubt, but it’s important we have the players who are ready come in and do well in their place.
“I think there’s players chomping at the bit to get game-time at the moment, with people playing for contracts and playing for their futures like you’ve said.
“You had Craig (Tanner) who came in on Tuesday and he done really well Tuesday. Kins (Lewis Kinsella) has done really well since he’s been back and other players coming back like Alfy (Whittingham) who are raring to go, so it’s good competition.”
Q: It does feel like there’s a lot more competition in places this season, you can not play as well one week then your replacement comes in and does well and keeps his place in the starting line-up?
“That’s the environment with football. You’re not guaranteed a start, You’re not guaranteed your position, you’ve got to fight and compete for it. Prove every week that you’re worthy of it.”
Q: Looking at Hartlepool again, first game of the season we played them this year away, probably not the game we wanted first game of the season but I think it would be fair to say we put a good account of ourselves and were a bit unfortunate to lose the game in the way we did.
“I think the manner we lost it up there was disappointing, obviously with the penalty and the way we conceded late on in the game, but we’ll be looking to rectify that tomorrow and give them a much better game.”
Q: It would be fair to say we’ve improved a lot more since that game and we put in a fighting performance against what is a title-chasing team, so the fact we can go to a place like Hartlepool and arguably improve from them, will be a bonus for us.
“100%. If you look at the games that we’ve played against the top-four clubs, Torquay we lost narrowly to them, Sutton, a couple of mistakes but we were okay against them. Stockport at home, we were decent and away.
“So we can compete with those clubs, it’s whether we can do it tomorrow and on more of a regular basis.”
Q: Do you think that comes from the mentality from the Manager and the Assistant Manager, do you think that’s changed from last season?
“The mentality has definitely changed from last year. We had hopes of finishing higher in the table and we’ve still got four games to go and we’ll still be looking to win as many of those as we can.
“I think the mindset has improved and is different. We go out and focus solely on every single game and we don’t look to far ahead or too far back.
“We go out to try and win.”
Q: For Hartlepool, they go into the game after a 4-2 defeat against Maidenhead at home, bit of an odd one in terms of the result but that just shows that anyone can beat anyone in this league.
“Exactly like you said, anyone can beat anyone. It’s just whoever turns up on the day!”
You can also sign up for the Live streaming service which starts at 1:30pm on Saturday HERE.
You can the full interview on our official YouTube channel HERE!
