Iron manager Nick Daws is happy with how his side's pre-season schedule has been shaped, with the players’ return just under three weeks away.
United will play a total of six pre-season fixtures, two of which are during a week-long stay in Obertraun, Austria - where the side will go on tour for the third successive stint.
Daws spoke to iFollow Iron on the schedule of games he has in store for his squad.
ON THE SCHEDULE AS A WHOLE…
ND: I’m really pleased. As we were building towards the end of the season, being in the play-offs made planning difficult, so I was a little bit concerned we wouldn’t get the pre-season games that we wished for, but we’ve managed to pin them down.
ON THE EARLY PART OF PRE-SEASON AND AUSTRIA…
ND: We play Winterton Rangers in the first game on July 7th, which is likely to be two teams of 45 minutes, and finalised our final game (against Alfreton Town) before Obertraun in Austria, where we’ve been for the previous two seasons. Obertraun is an incredible environment and we’re really blessed as a club that we’ve managed to get that again. It’s a beautiful place and a fantastic working environment where we will be playing two games.
ON THE TWO HOME GAMES…
ND: When we come back, we’ve got two home games against Nottingham Forest and Lincoln City to finish off, which is a really good set of games. It’s a mixture, which is what you want - a mixture of styles. If you look at Forest and Lincoln, they’re polar opposites in the way that they play, so one way or the other it will set us up nicely for the start of the season based on who we get in the first few games. Lincoln have built on their promotion and got into the play-offs based on a direct, aggressive style of play which has been successful for them. So much credit has to go to Danny (Cowley) and his brother to achieve that and almost get there. From that point of view, if we’re facing a direct style in the early part of the season, it will get us up nicely for that. Forest will no doubt come and look to pass us off the park and that will set us up to play the likes of Charlton or Sunderland perhaps. It’s a really good balance and two cracking games in front of our supporters.
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