Blues boss Paul Jewell admitted that his side didn’t create any opportunities during Tuesday’s abandoned scoreless game at Colchester but says his new look team has carved out chances during their other pre-season matches. The Town manager believes that with seven new signings and more to follow, it will take time for his side to get to their best.
Jewell said: "We didn’t create any chances against Colchester, to be honest, but in the previous games - first half against Southend, Cambridge — overall we’ve created lots of opportunities.
"I’ve said to the players, pre-season can be a bit of a pain in the backside because there’s nothing on the games.
"I’ve played and managed teams that have set the world alight in pre-season and then had a poor season and vice versa. One or two lads have done OK, but in the main I think we will get better.”
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and David Stockdale came into last night’s team having joined the squad earlier in the day and having been involved in what Jewell says was a testing session at Playford Road: "It’s going to take time for the players and we had two players in [on Tuesday] morning who trained with us for the first time.
"We were taking the game seriously, but we had quite a hard morning training session and it’s mainly about fitness levels and trying to gel the new players in as quickly as possible.”
Jewell confirmed that Fulham have included a 24-hour recall clause in keeper Stockdale’s loan deal.