Iron boss Russ Wilcox has stated that all attentions will now switch to the next pre-season match against Gainsborough Trinity on Friday afternoon.
United beat Northern Counties East League Division One side Bottesford Town 3-1 on Wednesday evening thanks to goals from Sam Winnall and a Paddy Madden double to get the club’s friendly fixtures off to a winning start.And Wilcox said that the primary focus is now on preparing the players for the game with Trinity and giving his players more minutes on the pitch.
He told The Iron Player: “We’ve been doing some football work and some strength and conditioning work as well since the Bottesford game on Wednesday.
“It’s still pre-season so the lads have been working hard.
“We’ve had a session today and now we’ll prepare for Gainsborough.
“We’ll sit down as a staff, see where we need to go and see how many minutes we can get out of each player on Saturday.”
While Wilcox understands the importance of working hard during pre-season, he is keen to keep the squad fresh going into each of the club’s pre-season games.
And after today’s session, the manager says the coaching staff will sit down and focus solely on the task in hand against Gainsborough.
“We’ve not done any double sessions over the last couple of days,” he continued.
“They trained on Wednesday morning and then had the game and just had one session on Thursday and one on Friday because we need to keep the lads fresh.
“We’re not sure at this moment what the squad will be like for the game tomorrow but we’ll analyse the Bottesford game and go through a few little bits.
“We’ll see what we can do better, certainly regarding the goal that we conceded from the corner and then look towards Saturday.”
Included in the Iron’s pre-season schedule was a trip to Champneys last week and Wilcox was delighted with how the short break went, also highlighting the fact that it helped the new additions to all settle in with the rest of the squad.
“Champneys was brilliant,” he added.
“Great facilities, outstanding food, a great pitch and we got the weather as well.
“It was like being abroad so we had four good days.
“Everyone worked really hard and obviously the lads have had time to gel together as well.
“The new lads have slotted in exceptionally well which I knew they would because they’re coming into a good group of people so they’ve been absolutely fine.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, Paddy Madden, Curtis Bateson, Niall Canavan and Matt Sparrow on The Iron Player.