How do you feel your pre-season games have gone?
We have had some positive performances. I know results don’t count for much in pre-season but we’re looking to get into the habit of scoring goals and winning games and that’s what we’re working towards as we edge closer to the start of the season. We’re all excited about the forthcoming season and we have certainly seen some positive performances so far.

How to do you feel about how the team is shaping up, have you got quite a few new players?
We’ve managed to add a fair few players to the squad; I think it’s fair to say our recruitment in general has gone well. We’ve tried to integrate the new lads into the squad through the games that we’ve played and in general it’s been a success. We had an extended pre-season so to speak, as we held open trials at the start of the summer. All of the boys have worked particularly hard and we’re now starting to reap the rewards.

Compared to when you took over last season with the under 18's, do you see any differences in the players you have now?
I think the most notable difference is squad depth. Last year we struggled to get a full matchday squad for the best part of the season and it was very much trial and error to begin with. It did improve towards the end of the season but we were still heavily short of numbers at times due to injuries etc. This season we have great squad depth and with the overall quality of the players there is strong competition for places in all positions.

How have you been finding managing the FC under 18s?
I’m not going to lie, it was a very difficult and stressful season last year. Being appointed so close to the start of the season and without a good pre-season under our belts it was a struggle. I think we started to improve towards the end of the season and set the foundations for us to build a high quality, sustainable set up. A lot of hard work has gone on during the closed season to ensure we’re ready and raring to go come September 7th.

And finally, do you have any aims for the season ahead?
On an individual level we’d like to see more players progressing to the first team. We’ve already seen what Harry Scott has done with the first team, whilst we’ve got another couple of players who’ve been training with the first team in recent weeks. It’s great to see the Club giving youngsters the opportunity to shine.

As a squad we want to compete on all four fronts this season. In the League the initial target is to consolidate our position in the Allied Counties Premier Division as we propped up the table for the whole of last season. I feel that with the squad we’ve got this season this is really achievable and we have ambitions of a much higher league finish this time around.

The FA Youth Cup is a great competition for all of us involved with the U18’s and we hope to have a good run in that competition, as well as the League Cup and County Cup. Our aim is to bring some silverware home at the end of the season!!!

The U18s Programme starts on the 7th September as they travel to Leverstock Green in the FA Youth Cup. All their fixtures can be found and will be updated HERE