With the Iron players now almost a week into their full pre-season schedule, Terry Hawkridge has stated that all the squad are fit and eager to get back playing again.
The first game of the new season is now only a month away meaning that the team have just four weeks to stake their claim for a spot in the starting line-up come 9 August.Hawkridge can’t wait to get going again and believes that everyone will be fit and ready in time after a tough pre-season.
“It’s all going great, we’ve just got to keep working hard, keep fit and be ready for the first game of the season,” he told The Iron Player.
“The new boys have all come straight in, they’re all good lads, they’re really fit and hopefully they can bring a lot to the team.
“We did well last year and hopefully they can bring even more to the squad this season.
“When the games start, they come thick and fast so pre-season is just about getting fit and staying injury free and being ready for the season when it starts.”
The winger made 49 appearances in his debut season as a Football League player after signing from local non-league side Gainsborough Trinity last summer, scoring twice throughout the campaign.
He’s confident that United have what it takes to compete in the third tier and is hoping to feature as much as he can on a personal level.
He continued: “I want to play as much as I can, that’s what I’m here for but if I don’t get picked then I’ll be in and around the squad and I’ll keep training as hard as I can.
“Obviously it’s going to be tough. There are always better teams as you go up but I think we’re capable of competing at this level.
“We’ve got a good enough squad to keep going, I just think we’ve got to take the mentality from last year into this year and I think we’ll be fine.
“We’re a great side and we proved that last year so now we’ve just got to show that we can do it in a higher league.
“I think we’ll do that fine. We have a few more weeks of pre-season where we’ll work really hard and be ready for it.”
The team travel down to Champneys Health Spa later on in the week to continue their pre-season preparations.
Hawkridge is looking forward to a few days away from the usual training surroundings and thinks that it will also be a good opportunity to bed the new additions into the squad.
“It should be great,” he added.
“It’s a bit of a way out but it’ll be good to get away for a few days and we’re going to be training as well, just as hard as we would when we’re here.
“We’ll be training for a few days, keeping fit and we’re all going to watch the World Cup game together which brings the new lads closer to us.
“We gelled really well last year as a squad and the new lads are gelling just as quickly so it’s all great at the moment.”
See much more from Terry Hawkridge on The Iron Player.