In the penultimate week of pre season we have 2 games in 3 days against two very good teams and I think both games will be our toughest tests to date.

In our last friendly against Retford I thought we dominated the game for long periods and more often than not made the right decisions when we were in possession. It was possibly our most complete performance of pre season and with 9 players missing the players that did play took their opportunity to stake a claim for the 8th August.

The squad is taking shape nicely and we currently have competition in all areas which can only benefit everyone. After signing 3 players after the Retford game we will be using the game against Mansfield on Thursday to look at a couple of players whilst giving the rest of the squad valuable game time. I am happy with our fitness levels and as we have started to introduce small sided games at training I am happy with our current level of ball play. It is also clear to see that over the last two weeks the team spirit has started to grow within the squad. This togetherness and the will to fight for the man next to you will be an important part of our success this year.

As I mentioned previously the next two games will see how far away we are from where we want to be, starting with Mansfield this evening. It goes without saying that they will be fit, organised and have the technical ability to cause us problems so it will be interesting to see how we deal with that. Then onto Saturday where we welcome Mark Shaw's Worksop who in my mind are the best footballing side in the NCEL. This will give us a taste of how our level and the level above differ and give us an indication of the standard we need to be at to compete in the coming seasons. I would like to thank both clubs in advance for agreeing to take part in our pre season schedule

On a personal note I would just like to thank everybody associated with the club from the committee to the fans for making our start at Shirebrook positive and for supporting the team. I feel that we can make this a great place for our players to play and quite the opposite for the opposition.

Enjoy the next two games

COYR

Chris Millington