It's Only a Friendly?
The July midday sun scorched over the pitch at Old Spa, the modest home Stadium of Droitwich United Football Club.
The new manager blew his whistle to mark the end of the training session. All of the players breathing quite heavily
and all with heavy bands of sweat across various parts of their bodies.
"Good session lads," he called out as the last of the players ran up into hearing range, "we have our first
friendly of the season in ten days against Folkestone and I am sure we will have at them with the performances you
put in today. Shower up and get to the caff for some grub. I'll see you all in the morning."
Each of the players ran off the the changing rooms, but oneplayer remained behind still holding a ball obviously
wanting some extra practise. The manager grinned to himself, greatful that at least one of the players was serious
about getting to fitness. The manager turned and headed to the small building that housed the admin and conference
centre for the club, running slightly late for his meeting with the chairman. Upon arriving at the office, he
knocked and entered, shaking the chairman, Oscar's hand.
"Thanks for seeing me," he started, taking a seat, "I won't keep you long but I have one or two requests I would
like to make."
"Sure, go right ahead," came the curt response with bearly a hint of the Dutch accent that the chairman
originally had.
"Well quite simply I think it may be a good idea to have a parent club. Perhaps a team from the Championship that
we have a link with for friendlies every season. Perhaps they coudl even loan out players to us of their choosing.
It woudl be a great chance to boost the chances of the club."
"Sounds like a good idea, I'll sound it out. But I do not know how successful we can be in all honesty."
"That would be great if we can. My only other request is that we offer all of the players who are at least 17
full time contracts if they do not already have them. I am really happy with the squad that we have and want to keep
them all if we can."
"Sure no problem. So long as they will accept reasonable deals it will be soon sorted."
"Excellent, thank you. I will leave you to your business now. Good day."
"Goodbye."
Training over the next week went much the same as it had on the first day. The players were slowly building up their
fitness and sharpness before the club's first friendly - an away game to non-league side Folkestone Invicta.
Author's note: This first friendly is being played by the Assistant
Sleep always came easy to to the manager and the night before the first friendly was no exception. That is until the
phone rang at 5am.
"Hello?" he said as he picked up the phone, simulatneously glancing over at the tme and rubbing his face.
"Hi Gaff it's Mel," came the voice of the club's physio,
"Sorry to wake you but I thought you would
want to know right away. Matt Doit's down with food poisoning. There is no way he can play today."
"Ah crud, do we know what caused it?"
"No, not yet. He will be calling me back shortly with what he has eaten in the last twenty-four hours."
"Ok, thanks for letting me know."
"No problem. See you later gaff."
The match was to take place at Folkestone's ground, The New Pavilion. As the team's coach pulled up to the ground
the Manager stood up and looked around at the players.
"Since day one, all of you have been itching for me to announce the captain. I have kept schtum until now as I
wanted there to be no incentive for you to train as hard as you can for the arm band. But now I have picked the
captain and I want you all to know that this decision has been picked soley on the basis of commitment to the team,
as well as leadership qualities on and off the field."
A stoic silence filled the coach as he moved down the middle of the coach, in his hand the captains armband. Almost
every players eyes were locked onto the band more then anything else before he stopped near the middle of the coach.
"Mike, you have stayed behind almost every training session. You have even encouraged others to stay behind for
extra practise. I can not think of anyone else who deserves this arm band, more then you do."
A hesitant cheer errupted through the coach as the armband was handed over, with pats and hair rubs passing over the
new captain.
"Cheers Gaff," he said, beaming, "Let's do this!"
In the dressing room, the players were anxious to get onto the field. It would be their first test of their
season'spreparations.
Tactics Match Match Stats
THe match was dominated by Droitwich United. The opposition were not given a sniff of the ball and their keeper
could only save one shot out of the eight that were on target.
Could this be a sign of things to come?
More to come when I have actually written it!
Can't wait for the Salt Pit's first league match report
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