Following Saturday’s signings we caught up with manager Craig Rouse to discuss preseason plans, the summer business and a look to next season.
Here’s what he had to say…
We’re approaching our return to preseason, tell us how pleased you are with retaining the players you have for next season?
We’re happy to have retained the core of the squad that finished the season in relatively good form. As a management team we understood that the togetherness & positive atmosphere within the group we had was something that can take us forward. We’ve got good players with good ability and the key for us all is finding the consistency that will make us better as a group.
We’ve also seen four additions into the squad. How pleased are you with bringing those players in?
All four players have been long term targets of ours so to get them into the club is really pleasing. All four players bring good experience of playing at an higher level but more importantly they are all winners. The one thing we felt we lacked last season was quality in depth and these four signings will increase quality, standards and competition.
We have also confirmed a good preseason schedule, what can we expect from us and our opposition?
All the games will be tough tests for us for different reasons. The lower division teams have been in pre season around two weeks before us, so will be ahead in terms of schedule and fitness which will really test us. The higher ranked teams obviously come with higher quality and it’ll be good for us to test ourselves against those teams to see where we are as a marker.
Is there anything specifically the players will be working on during preseason?
In the main they are a group that are familiar with each other, so we’ll be focusing on getting everyone in the best shape possible and ensuring everyone is fit & match sharp.
Finally what are the aims for the start of the season?
We want to start the season as well as possible. We understand that there’s a lot of good teams being assembled within the league, but we’re happy with the squad we’ve assembled so we feel we’re in a good position. We’ll shoot for the stars and see where it takes us.