Friday, 22nd August 2008

Manager's Notes

16th August 2008
Gary Norton

Welcome back. Today is the day most of us have been waiting for all summer long.

With no Euro 2008 football to focus on during the off season it has been a very difficult time for those whose need for the beautiful game stretches beyond cricket, shopping, gardening and wedding fares on a Saturday afternoon. The first day of a new football season is always a special day and today is no different. The preseason training and games are over and from 3pm today the blood, sweat and tears of a new campaign gets underway.

Our form has been indifferent to say the least in
pre-season. After retaining the Don Hill memorial trophy at Rocester, a magnificent night at the Pirelli saw us almost clinch our second piece of silverware of the summer after we had victory snatched away from us with an injury time Burton Albion equaliser only for us to go down on penalties. If that was the highlight of preseason the Saturdays 7-1 defeat against Eastwood was certainly a low point and one we are looking to put behind us.

We have made several new additions to the squad for the coming campaign as we look to improve on last seasons mid table finish. Several of the squad from last season are still with us and I must pay special mention to these lads as many of them are still owed outstanding wages from the last campaign - a fact that our new board have been working very hard to resolve all summer.

We welcome all of the new squad members to the Moat Ground and we very much hope, the majority of the new additions will prove to be successful in their time with us this season. Inevitably, some players will become injured, lose form or move elsewhere - but that said, we are aiming to get a settled squad in place as soon as possible.
We have a very tough start to the campaign with some difficult games in our 1st month. Today we entertain last seasons beaten playoff finalists, Sheffield FC who like ourselves know just what its like to fall at the final hurdle. They lost to Nantwich Town on penalties and will be looking to bounce back this season with promotion. Chris Dolby is the clubs new manager and he will be looking for a good start to the campaign today. Good luck to Chris in his first season in management. However, I'm sure he wont mind if I wish him that luck to start after today's game!!

Our next two games after today see us make difficult trips. On Tuesday night we travel to Dales Lane to face league newcomers Rushall Olympic whilst next Saturday we travel to Champions Retford United where we will witness at first hand if they are going to be the same force in the league as they were last time round.

Please get behind the team today as we get on the way in this season’s campaign.

Gaz

Previous "Manager's Notes"

No Gold For Rovers At Olympic's Ground

You Team First Win

Fans Forum

Hinks Leaves The Moat

Away to:
Retford United

Saturday 23rd August, 3.00pm
Directions here

View previous encounters with Retford United