Ahead of Saturday’s Pitching In Southern League Premier Central match, at home to Rushall Olympic (3:00 KO), manager Gavin Hurren has previewed the fixture, as well as reflecting on our match versus Banbury, providing a squad update, and looking back at Tuesday’s fans’ forum.
“Looking at last weekend and Banbury. The performance and result were fantastic and I think we’ve been building up over the last few weeks, both in terms of training well and strengthening the squad with our recruitment, which is allowing us to perform well and pick up positive results.
“Banbury are a fantastic side, who are at the top of the league for a reason, but I think we matched them and more and, on another day, we could well have come away with all three points. It’s a credit to the boys for listening and buying into what we’re trying to say and do.
“It was fantastic to see the fans that made the journey and I hope they can all see the improvements over the weeks. We’re moving in the right direction and it’s important that we keep these performances up, we keep the support up on and off the field and we keep going to the end of the season.
“Onto our next opponents – Rushall are the league’s in form team. They’ve picked up some fantastic results over the past month, but it will be nice for myself and the team to go up against them. They’ve worked on building their squad over the past few years and credit to Liam (McDonald, manager), his staff and the Allens (owners) for putting them in a position where they can really give it a go and possibly get promotion. I welcome them all to the VG.
“Tom Taylor and Joel Kettle are back, which is a real plus. We’ve had a few niggles after Banbury that will need assessing, as will some of the lads’ fitness.
“Miro Pais, Jack Newell and Cody Fisher are still out, but I believe the strength in depth of the squad now is a real positive. There are some nice headaches to have, with those guys coming off the bench giving it a really good go to push for a starting place.
“I really enjoyed the fans’ forum. It was nice to meet everybody again and there were some really good footballing questions for me to answer, with topics including recruitment, formations, next year’s plans, an U21s side, and a scholarship programme for 16 – 18 year olds, to name just a few.
“There’s the ladies football team, which is up and coming and I know they’ve had a fantastic season so far and the Veterans team too. We’re slowly bringing an infrastructure that can keep our club moving forward in the right direction.
“Me and the boys now ask, for the remaining games of the season, that the supporters keep backing the boys, as it really means a lot!”
