Hednesford Town boss, Rob Smith, has spoken of his positive feeling about the spirit in his new squad as a plethora of his new signings have settled in well to the pre-season schedule ahead of tonights opening game against AFC Wulfrunians.
The Pitmen begin their preparations for another promotion push this evening against a Wulfrunians side currently residing in the Premier Division of the West Midlands Regional League and, having seen his players put in the hard yards in the opening weeks of the campaign, Smith is confident his side can challenge again.
‘The positives have been the spirit in the squad that has formed very quickly given the amount of new players. The quality has looked very good, and most importantly the fitness levels have been impressive.
The players have worked very very hard. It has been a mixture of endurance work combined with some hill work and plenty of ball work and they did four sessions in the first six days of pre-season.’
The Keys Park outfit, losing play-off semi finalists against Bradford Park Avenue last time round, have had a busy close season and the manager is impressed by the character of his new signings and the make up of his forward line.
‘It has been good to meet up with the new lads, there are some really good characters joining the club and some players who I am sure the fans will like. The reaction of them with the existing players has been very encouraging and I see a dramatic improvement in our forward play. We have a lot more goalscorers in the squad now.’
Wulfrunians are first up this evening at Castlecroft Road, Wolverhampton, KO 7.45, The Pitmen then travel to Heath Hayes on Saturday before welcoming Mansfield Town to Keys Park on Tuesday 17th July. Smith is confident that, despite planning to run on a small squad, more transfer activity is very likely in the next few weeks.
‘More signings are imminent, but we have twelve signed up, two more pending, and then I will only add a further two. The down side is that we will be running with a small squad, but we have to and will run a tight ship. We are not in the business of going the way other clubs have recently, however we still hope to be very competitive.’
