Ahead of Saturday’s return to league action, Ryan Wintle spoke to the press at CCS.
With one fixture remaining from a busy opening month of the season, the midfielder reflected on the Bluebirds’ performances so far, with City unbeaten in all competitions and just two goals conceded.
“We’ve got a lot of good players in the squad,” said Ryan. “While obviously last season was a disappointment, with the manager we’ve got and the players getting on board with what he wants, it’s only a positive thing and you can see that in the results.
“We’ve not lost yet, including from pre-season, so it’s a positive and we’ve got to keep on winning games so that we can really bridge that gap.
“People have been asked to do things that they’ve not done before in their career, and with a young squad that probably helps.
“With the manager coaching at top clubs for many years, people are going to listen to him, so you can see already that we’re getting better and better with each game. By the end of the season, we expect to be really, really good.
“It’s not just the defence that works for that, it’s the whole team. We all press together, we all attack together. When you watch back clips and the nitty gritty stuff, you can see that our wingers are past me sometimes in getting back and defending, and that’s what you’ve got to do to be a successful team; you can’t just expect to roll teams over, you have to out-work them first.
“The manager instils good habits. As soon as bad habits slip in from training and losing games then it’s only going to be a slippery slope. It’s about doing it right every day.”
Looking ahead to the weekend, Ryan discussed his excitement at returning to league action against the Pilgrims.
“You can see that supporters and the players are all buzzing for the next game,” Wintle continued. “I don’t want to be going in for training, I want to be playing games! We’re excited to go and play.
“Plymouth got relegated with us last year, so they’re not going to come here and make it easy.
"They probably haven’t started how they would have wanted to, but they’re not going to be easy, so we’re going to have to do everything right to make sure that we win the game.”
Concluding, City’s number 6 discussed the importance of continuing the hard work that has gone into the season so far, as the Bluebirds look to build upon recent form.
“We’ve got to make sure that we keep winning,” Ryan explained. “And making sure that if we don’t win then we don’t lose it.
“When we went to Wimbledon away we had chances but didn’t score, and in the 89th minute we’re thinking ‘just don’t lose the game’, but then we went and ended up winning it anyway.
“If we’re in that position a lot then it’s a positive. The teams that get promoted don’t beat everyone 5-0, they win 1-0 away or draw when they’ve not quite been at it. That’s a positive for me and I’m looking forward to it continuing.”