Taylor - We've got to make sure we recover right
Limerick manager Stuart Taylor says his players must “make sure they prepare and recover right” as they face into a hectic period of three games in six days after over two weeks without action.
Rearranged home games against Shamrock Rovers, next Tuesday, and Bohemians, on Monday week, mean that the Superblues are set to cram three Premier Division outings into the space of less than a week, with a trip to title challengers Dundalk in between on Friday.
Limerick have been idle since holding leaders Saint Patrick’s Athletic to a scoreless draw at Thomond Park on 7 September which ended a run of four straight defeats in all competitions.
And Taylor admitted that he would have preferred to be back in action much sooner after such a positive result, with the 38-year-old wary of the toll that the upcoming schedule could take on his players.
He also stated his hope that his players can keep progressing after their two most recent performances, with Rovers first up in the Munster city on Tuesday evening, kick-off 7.45pm.
“When you’ve had a good performance like that and the spirits and confidence are high, you want the next game to come straight away,” Stuart said.
“But in all honestly we’re always looking to be playing games. It’s part of our development. You learn more playing games than you do in training.
“There is so much you can do in training, it’s an education, but when you’re actually trying to test yourself – as we’ve been doing all season – that’s when you learn more, playing competitive games.
“We’ll only be able to tell when we come back from the break what our response has been. We’ve made the most of the time that we’ve had off. We’ve been working on specific things in training.
“We’re looking to progress again from our performance in the last game. We progressed from the Sligo game and now we’ve got to do the same again.
“We’ve got three games in six days so it’s going to bring a difficulty towards our programme. We’ve got to make sure that we prepare ourselves right and recover right.
“We’ve got three massive games coming up.”
Taylor, meanwhile, has called on his players to give the supporters something to smile about in the closing weeks of the season to give a good impression ahead of the 2014 campaign.
“It’s a big thing I’ve asked the players, to play every game like a cup final, but in the home games to give that little bit more because we need to go and showcase ourselves for next season,” he said.
“We need to go and have a right good end to the season. We’ve got three home games left which are massive for us.
“We’re looking for big crowds for the last three games and we’re looking to show the supporters a little bit of what we’re going to be all about for next season.
“We’ve got to go and do that so the supporters can leave this season on a high with a nice taste in their mouth, with good memories, and we certainly want a good taste in the mouth for ourselves with our performances.
“I’m looking for a big turnout of supporters and hopefully we can showcase ourselves and show what we’re all about.”