Alliances Forged Author's note: Wa=tch out for the links mixed into the text assuming I get the tags right!
A muted hush fell over the small conference hall at Old Spa as three men walked towards the press table, in front of the assembled journalists - all five of them plus their photographers. The men were the Manager, Oscar Gunner and Jeremy Peace, the Chairman of West Bromwich Albion. As rumoured they were announcing a local partnership in which West Brom could loan players to Droitwich as well as stage an annual friendly at Old Spa between the two teams.
"The grass roots of football are extremely important to the top tiers of football," began Peace, "I am proud to be investing in the future of football at a club like Droitwich United. This is also an outstanding opportunity for West Brom in that we can give our younger players the chance to play regular competetive football, which will no doubt benefit Droitwich."
"Droitwich United is a fast rising club," started Oscar, "and with the support of teams like West Brom, we hope to accelerate our rise. Our prediction is a low table finish this season but the Manager has assured me that he is aiming for nothing less then Promotion. I have however assured him that this season's aim is to at least cement our position within the League. Anything more will be a welcome bonus."
"We have already highlighted one player to make an initial move," added Peace,
"
Rob Elvins will be spending the rest of his injury rehabilitation at Droitwich and will be spending the rest of the season here as well."
Following no questions from the media, the announcement was over and the club cracked right down with its pre-season preparations. Next up on the friendly fixtures was an away trip to UWIC Inter Cardiff which following Droitwich's pounding of Folkestone has been labelled as yet another easy friendly.
"Gaff, what's the point of playing these easy teams?" asked Ben Goldthorpe, the club's young leftback, "I mean no offense to them, but we could pound them left right and centre."
"That is true we could," the manager reponded, "but these friendlies are less about how we play and more about getting you boys up to full match sharpness ready for our first match of the season. Which as you all know is against Redditch so we really want to get off to a good start against our local rivals."
As predicted, the match against UWIC was a one sided affair with another
7-0 pounding with Carnie netting four times again and picking up the
man-of-the-match award for the second game running.
The next three friendlies saw another trend of hammering the opposition, but interestingly the next friendly against Llwdcoed saw the first goal conceeded by Droitwich in the
6 - 0 drumming.
A non-cricket score of
4 - 1 against RTB Ebbw Vale followed which saw Carnie only scoring a hat-trick
this time around.
A
7 - 1 beating of Western-Super-Mare saw Carnie pick up a
double hat-trick with the first red card seen in a match involving Droitwich, but fortunately not for the Salt Pits.
Prior to the match against Aldershot, the Manager had taken to watching the game from the stands, but in facing the Conference National side, he decided to take a more hands on approach and played the game in the dug-out (
IE I actually played this match instead of leaving it to the Assistant). The match ended in a modest
3 - 0 win, seeing Carnie net twice and Azeryk finishing things off in the
last minute.
So six games and thirty-four goals in the Salt Pits pre-season build up. You would have thought that the new club would be ready for the season ahead surely.
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