Town boss Paul Jewell was delighted to see Tommy Smith open his goals account for the season in last night’s 3-1 Capital One Cup victory over Bristol Rovers and wants to see more of the same from his centre-halves as the season progresses.
Jewell has been impressed with Smith's partnership with Luke Chambers up to now: "It’ll be a different test for them on Saturday but I can’t ask for more than what they’ve shown.
"I think it’s important that our centre-halves, or anyone’s centre-halves, get goals because they go up for every freekick and corner and we’re entitled to get a bit more of a return than we have been.
"I think every manager will tell you the same, they need to be getting five, six or seven goals a season.”
He says he’s been pleased with the way they've gelled since Smith returned from Olympics duty with New Zealand: "Tommy’s done smashing, he’s a great pro. He’s only 22, he’s had a lot of experience at international level and he’s played 50 or 60 games for us. He’ll only get better and Luke Chambers has settled in very quickly.”
Jewell expects the weekend game against Blackburn to be somewhat different from the Bristol Rovers match: "It’s going to be totally different on Saturday, it’ll probably be ‘crash, bang, wallop’, that’s the Championship.
"We’ve got a very young team, our two midfield players, Massimo and Luke Hyam, I’m older than the two of them with their ages combined.
"We’ve got a young team, we haven’t got the biggest group in the world, but certainly I think you can see that we’re fighting for each other.”