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TURNER ON PLAYING
SQUAD AND PRE-SEASON
In Part
Two of this exclusive interview, Hereford United boss Graham Turner speaks
to the club's official website and gives us his thoughts on the current make
up of his squad as a whole and also discusses the pre-season campaign that
is in store for his players ahead of a much anticipated Nationwide
Conference campaign.
Looking at his squad as it stands at the present time, first the Bulls boss
talked about his new signings, the players he already has at Edgar Street
and also how he is looking to bring more new players in.
“With the Matt Baker situation still undecided, my main priority at the
moment is to sign a proven goalkeeper. Now whether that will be Matt or
someone completely new I'm not sure yet, but I do have irons in the fire
regarding that position. We have Ben Scott already signed on and he
certainly has potential, but it's important that we have a more experienced
‘keeper here for him to learn from and compete with. Ben's certainly shown
up well for our reserve team but we have to be careful not to throw him into
the fray too soon, as goalkeeper is one of the most pressurised positions on
the field after all.
“Looking at the rest of the squad, I think it's fair to say that although we
have lost three players we would like to have kept, we are delighted that
the rest have agreed to stay on. Having missed out on promotion after such a
good season we were always likely to lose some players, but I am pleased
with the amount that we've managed to hang on to. Those that have left have
all gone to higher graded clubs which is fair enough, and though we're
disappointed to lose them, it at least demonstrates the good job they have
done and that we are all doing here.
“We've still got the nucleus of last year's squad though and we have the
experienced players like Tony James, Andy Tretton and Jamie Pitman who will
once gain help the likes of Rob Purdie, Tom Smith and Danny Carey Bertram to
name but a few. I think ‘Tretts' decision to re-sign was a massive boost for
everyone, as he's an influential figure off the pitch and a very solid,
capable player on it.
“Added to the players that were already here, we've now brought in Craig
Stanley and Adam Stansfield, both of whom fit our mould as the type of
player we have targeted to bring in over recent times. Both are hungry to
get started and prove themselves once again and, having already tasted
League football, they know it is the place to be and are desperate to get
back there. Everyone here is striving in search of that goal and I think
that was demonstrated on the field of play last season in the drive and
commitment our players showed.
“We are putting together a group of players with the same type of attitude
ahead of this coming season and if they give us the same level of commitment
that the players did last year, we will be able to have few complaints. I
think that going for a younger, hungrier player has worked well for us so
far and there's no reason why that won't continue this season.
“Including the goalkeeping position, what I want now is between three and
five more players ahead of the season proper kicking off. We are in a
position where we can aim happily for that size of squad and with season
tickets sales going well and last year's average attendance being higher, we
do have a bigger budget to work with. It's not enormous by any means but
it's certainly an improvement upon last season's. However, we made good
offers to retain the players who were already here and that helped us sign
many of them on, but to be fair it was only right after the way they went
about things last season.
“Though I've said I want between three and five more new players, I will
certainly be keeping a couple of places in the squad open as we have several
players coming in to train with us in pre-season so we can have a good look
at them. You can pick up some real gems then, as we have done in the past,
and when the season is suddenly less than a month away, many players quickly
realise that they need to get themselves fixed up as soon as they can.
“There's no point me inviting players in for training if there's no way I
can offer them anything if they do well, and that would also be a waste of
time for the players themselves. However, if they can see that if they do
well we have places to fill, they come here knowing they have half a chance
at least and that can work out well for all the parties involved, as we see
a motivated player while the player knows the club may have something for
them should they impress.”
Moving on to talk about his side's pre-season campaign, Turner explained
that he's generally happy with the make up of the programme and also
admitted that it is a real bonus that Andy Tretton will be able to serve his
one match suspension during the Herefordshire Senior Cup tie against
Wellington.
“The programme we've set up is a good one we believe, although we feel a bit
let down by Bristol City, who have pulled out of their game against us. We
understand that they have a new manager now but they haven't given us a lot
of notice to get another game fixed up and that's disappointing from both a
playing and financial point of view.
“There's not a lot we can do about it now though and I'm sure we'll fit in
another game there to keep ourselves up to speed in the build up to the
start of the season proper. To be honest our campaign will be much the same
as last year with similar fixtures and they certainly provided us with good
preparation last time round. If we can get the fitness levels up to as high
as they were last year we will be delighted, because we need high standards
to play the style of football that we try to. We are fortunate that we have
young group of players anyway though and they are all generally very
responsible and look after themselves well during the close season.
“We have three home games against League clubs which should bring a few
people through the turnstiles, but probably the most significant match is
the one against Wellington where Andy Tretton will be able to serve his one
match ban for the red card he picked up against Aldershot in the play-offs.
“We originally thought he'd miss the first game of the season but as this
match will count as a senior competitive fixture, he can serve it then which
means he'll be available for our first Conference game. We did consider
appealing against the sending off because it was such a bad decision, but
from what we know about that referee, he was hardly going to admit his error
was he? Fortunately we can have that ban served without the decision
affecting us yet again, and that is good news because that shocking
dismissal has caused us more than enough problems already to be honest.
“All in all I'm pleased with the pre-season campaign we have in place and we
will once again be taking the players down to the specialist fitness
facility that we've used on many occasions. That really allows us to keep a
check on where each individual player's fitness stands, and it proved it's
worth in some style last season.
“It's around about now, with the players about to come back in, that you
really start to get that buzz again and your sense of anticipation certainly
grows from now until the season eventually kicks off. There is a sense of
optimism about the place I believe, let's just hope we can go one step
further this season and complete the job that we so nearly managed do
successfully last year.”
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