1874 Manager Ian Street gives a pre-season update.
A bit of a change….
Well after last week’s shock announcement and promotion it has been a whirlwind week of arranging and then re-arranging of a few things…
I have to say that I am over the moon that we will be competing in what is a very strong premier division, to work so hard and then just miss initially on goal difference was tough to take but after further too-ing and fro-ing in the league reconstruction and it still not go our way, I was resigned to accepting that it wasn’t going to happen for us, then came the phone call from our chairman last Saturday morning and as we say a lot at our club, the rest is history..!
I must say that it is a real shame that such a fine club as Formby with great traditions spreading over many many years is unable to continue, I remember playing at their old ground with the stand behind the top goal as a kid starting out and it was always a friendly, welcoming family club and I do hope that they can somehow recover and who knows in a short time they manage to get something going again.
Myself and Paul Bowyer attended the supporters evening last Tuesday and once again it was good to see a great turn-out with passion and enthusiasm for the progression of our club shown by everyone. It was also good to see that Brian Edge, as a loyal Blackburn Rovers supporter has finally let his secret admiration of Burnley FC come out in allowing us to have a claret away kit, nice one Brian..!
Our promotion meant that our pre-season game schedule had to be looked at as we were now up against three direct competitors from the premier league, West Didsbury were still keen to play the game on the 12th July with us, the game is really early in both our build ups and both teams will be just looking to use the game for fitness rather than any fine tuning, their gaffa Andy Nelson is a good friend of mine who was my assistant at Warrington Town so I trust him as well.
The Winsford game on the 26th July will go ahead to keep the good link between both clubs going so the only one that I decided needed changing was Glossop NE on the 19th July, on that date we now have a trip to Kidsgrove Athletic FC.
I tried to initially sort out a game against a north Wales Welsh Premier league club so that Vicki could walk down the prom’ with a 99 ice cream in one hand and a bottle of cider in the other (ha-ha) but it was proving difficult due to the lateness of it all.
On the player front nothing has changed, whatever targets we had approached had decided they were coming whatever league we were in and so it’s just a bonus that we are in the same league as they were already playing in. We cannot register any players till after the league AGM on the 14th June so for now I can’t give many details but I am excited by the prospect of the new guys coming in to add to an already very strong retained squad of players.
The only players not returning to us are left back Connor Tagoe, who feels he wouldn’t get many games with us and Stuart Wellstead who is more than likely returning to Runcorn Town, Stuart has his reasons for his decision and that is his own business, I wish both of them all the best.
I have made a couple of adjustments on the management side of things, Paul Bowyer, who has decided that his playing days are all but over will take a more lead role with me as assistant manager, he will still keep a decent standard of fitness and will register as a player.
Lee Duckworth will continue his role as player assistant and his general help and thoughts will still be very much a part of what we do.
We have a new coach joining us in Paul Snape who has a good reputation as an up and coming talent, Paul stepped in at Leek CSOB as manager at the end of last season when they were having their problems and did very well, currently working through his coaching badges at the moment Paul is looking forward to getting involved and I know he will be made welcome by everyone at the club.
We start our pre-season training next week on Saturday 14th June at Moss Farm at 1.30pm and if any supporters maybe want a quick look then you are welcome to do so.
See you all very soon.
Ian.