After a lengthy summer break, United full back Conor Townsend says he’s pleased to be back in training and looking forward to the season ahead.
The 23-year-old stated his main aim at this stage is to enhance his fitness levels, but on the whole the defender revealed he’s just happy to back amongst the rest of the squad.Townsend told The Iron PlayerHD: “I want to get fit because that’s what pre-season is for. All the lads have come back in pretty good shape, and I’ve got personal aims which I’ll keep to myself. With regards to the team, we’ve spoken about what we want to do for the season.
“It’s nice to get back out there, it’s been a long seven weeks off and after a while it starts to get a little boring.
“So it’s nice to be back and back into it. Obviously it’s the same group of lads, apart from Josh (Morris) and Sam (Mantom) coming in, but other than that it’s the same group."
The former Hull City man believes with relatively few incomings into the club, he and his teammates can pick up where they left off from the last campaign - something which he only feels can be a positive.
“It’s quite strange, because in the lower leagues nowadays there’s normally a big turnaround in players. So to go into the season with the same team, and the same nucleus of a squad, I think it’ll stand us in good stead in the first few games,” he said.
“We all know each other, compared to other teams who are still trying to gel. So hopefully we can use that to our advantage, and get off to a good start."
He went on to add that if the Iron can start in the same form in which they ended the 2015-16 campaign, then they’ll have a real chance of improving on last year’s seventh position.
“It’s obviously momentum we can take into this season. We know we can beat anyone in the division when we play how we can,” he stated.
“So hopefully we can start in the same manner as we ended last season, and that will give us more of a chance come the end of the campaign.
“I think we’ve seen how crucial it was last year. If the team would have had a better start to the year we’d have made the play-offs - simple as that.
“If we don’t have a good start then it’s not the end of the world, but if we want to get to where we want to be, then we’re going to need a pretty good start to give ourselves a chance going into January onwards.”
See much more from Conor Townsend on the Iron PlayerHD.
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