Boss prepares for first home pre-season friendly...
IT'S good to be back on home soil for our first home pre-season friendly against Aston Villa.Games against Villa always provide us with a tough examination and form an extremely useful part of our preparations for the new season.
I find it hard to believe that it was 25 years ago that I played against Villa in the opening game here at Bescot (Banks’s) Stadium.
The players have worked hard over these past few weeks. They returned in good shape having followed their individual summer maintenance programmes and they have been able to build from a position of strength since the start of the month.
We’re not far off where I want us to be. Training has been sharp and productive; we’ve had a couple of training games, which allowed us to run the rule over a number of trialists and try out various formations, and played our first public friendly at AFC Telford on Tuesday, whilst we also enjoyed a weekend away in Wales just prior to that.
This allowed us to take the players out of their comfort zones and understand their character. It also gave them the opportunity to drive each other on in a different environment whilst further strengthening the bond that exists within the group.
We benefitted greatly from the experience and it has formed part of what has been a productive pre-season so far.
The ultimate aim is to be ready for when the season kicks off on August 8th. Everyone is focussed on being able to hit the ground running and make a positive start to the season.
We all have a role to play in this and I call upon the fans to really get behind us as we look to make this a season to remember.
DEAN