Dean Smith's men head to AFC Telford on Tuesday evening...
THE SADDLERS face our first public pre-season friendly on Tuesday evening as we travel to New Bucks Head Stadium to take on AFC Telford United (kick-off 7.45pm).Dean Smith’s side have already faced two behind-closed-doors training games earlier this month as our preparations for the new campaign now start to step up a pace.
“We are looking forward to the challenge that AFC Telford will present to us,” said manager, Dean Smith. “They are a good side and we know that the game will be played on a nice surface.
“The pre-season has gone well so far; the players returned at a good level and they have been able to build on this with plenty of hard work and endeavour.
“We’ve managed to stay relatively injury-free so far and we hope that this will continue.
“The behind-closed-doors games that we have played over the past couple of weeks have allowed us to try out various things and run the rule over a number of players, but we are looking forward to our first outing in front of the fans.
“The standard of opposition that we face is good and it will stand us in good stead for the challenges that lie ahead.
“There won’t be too many trialists involved on Tuesday. We’ve already made decisions and spoken to some of those who were with us in the early part of pre-season.
“This is an opportunity to get minutes into the players.”
Summer signings Neil Etheridge, Jason Demetriou and Milan Lalkovic are all expected to be involved.
The game will take place at the New Bucks Head Stadium, Watling Street, Wellington, Telford – post code for Sat Navs is TF1 2TU. Admission is pay on the evening at £8 (adults), £5 (concessions) and free for U16s.
We return to home action on Saturday as we play host to Aston Villa (kick-off 3.00pm).