With the weather, having a couple of the games been cancelled, in particular the Staines one which I was disappointed about as it was a good day, weather wise but I believe there is a river running behind the ground, but it was important that instead of just training that we just got a game in, so this gave us another opportunity. I knew the opposition weren't going to be as strong as I would have liked but when you play opposition like that, you still have to go out there and perform. I thought we were slow to start with, but I thought we improved and did very well in the second half and everybody put a good effort in and applied themselves properly.
I didn't take any chances with Josh or Drew because they're both recovering from little knocks that they've picked up in training because we train quite intensely, like we play. It's full on in training.
I liked the facilites, the positives for me were Jamie Kearns who did well, filling in at the back, it was also good to have edgey back. As well, Robbie Keane is showing great ability.
(Talking about Leon Hibbert) Leon has been seeing a consultant, he has been told at the moment that he cannot train. He is under supervision of a physio therapist at the moment, so we are waiting to see what the report is back from him, to see whether he can play for us again because he is one I would certainly like to have a look at. There has been a lot of potential when I have been over in the past and watched him and Steve has spoken highly of him in the past but obviously he is carrying an injury now and he finished the end of last season with the injury.
It was good to have the inclusion of young Ollie again, with the set up we now have with Kevin and the Capital league and Martin and the youth team, it now allows a direct route and shows that, as a player, if you are capable of playing in the first team, you will be looked at. Ollie is one of the talented youngsters that was recommended to me, so we are definately looking.
I've worked with youth players at Northampton Town and within the youth structure at Kettering and was instrumental at bringing young players through at Aylesbury United and if you don't brig them through then you will not know if they are good enough. I also invited Lee Simper but he was unavailable due to work commitments so hopefully he can be involved Tuesday night, as he has worked hard in training and he looks bright. This system will attract talented players, allowing them to come through.
On Tuesday night I will be looking for a convincing win, making sure we control the game, that is important. Obviously when you play teams from a lower level, they try and go a little more physical, if they cannot match you for ability but I am expecting them to work hard on Tuesday and see these games as ones that we can get good habits out of. I would like tougher tests but because of cancelations, this has not been the case. The thing I find in these games, where you are playing teams where you are expected to win, you think you are going to get a convincing victory and going to put a thumping performance in but these are the harder games to motivate players for, which means that I have to work harder because the bigger games take care of themselves for the players because they want to play in them and that is the reaction we are getting from the lower teams we are playing and you get another 25-30% from players raising their game.
Originally we had 10 games booked, so as many games as we can get in pre-season is fantastic because they will work 50% harder in a game than they ever will in training without even realising it. At the moment I am in talks with the chairman at Kettering who I still have really good links with, to possibly bring a team over but the problem we are having at the moment is that we are having a lot of the work done at the ground, so until the wall round the pitch is done, we are a bit limited in what we can do so we cannot invite Conference teams over, which we would like to do and need to protect the pitch. I have spoken to Dave (Boggins) about the possible friendly and it depends whether the wall can be built quick enough, which also has been slowed down by the poor weather. But any possible friendlies I can get in, I will.
Overall, I would have liked a few stronger tests but they're doing everything asked of them in training and in games which they are coming through.

Danny.