The Ravens pre-season fixtures get underway tomorrow (Saturday) so we caught up with manager Paul Jones to get his thoughts on how pre-season training has gone so far and what we have to look forward to.
“The eagle-eyed among our supporters will have noticed player registrations appearing on the NWCFL website. There will be many familiar names within that list alongside some new additions to the group. We do expect a few more registrations in the next couple of weeks before the season starts to ensure we have the player quality and depth to meet the challenges ahead.
Since the first pre-season session on the 23rd June the coaching team have have been really impressed with the attitude and performance levels of the training group. They really have shifted up a notch which is great to see. New players to the group have been warmly welcomed and they are already adding value to our work together. We have provided opportunity for a small number of 16-18 old’s, after they attended our open training sessions, to work with the group and even play in some in-house friendlies. They have been exceptional to work with, haven’t looked out of place and have been well looked after by the more experienced members of the group. we look forward to providing them with more opportunities to continue their development over the months ahead.
We have also been joined by some of those players who are now playing in the UK and US before they head back away again. As always it was a real pleasure to see them again and reconnect.
As you can see below the first official matchday squad for the game against Brackley Town largely contains players from last season who I am sure you will all look forward to seeing again on Saturday. 2 ‘new’ players to our squad this season are involved however.
First is young Harry Callin. Harry plays for Braddan in the local league and has been training with us for a while now, since turning 16, to support his development as a Goalkeeper and he really has impressed us all with his attitude, temperament, commitment and consistency within our training environment. We are very happy to be able to provide him with an opportunity to experience a Ravens match day at the Bowl against such high quality opponents.
Our second new face to the matchday squad is Ste Riding who plays for Rushen in the local game. Ste will is well-known (renowned) in the Manx football community for not only be a really good footballer who is capable of excelling in a number of positions but also a thoroughly good human who is a delight to be around. His personality and game understanding are already shining through and we are sure he will make a great contribution to the group over the season.
We know you will help both of them and indeed all the Ravens players feel like giants through your support on Saturday. Thank you in advance.
Saturday will be an extremely tough game against opponents from 3 Steps above us in the pyramid. The group are really looking forward to the challenge on Saturday as we keep working to improve our performance levels on both sides of the ball.
We are especially looking forward to being back at the Bowl and connecting with our fantastic supporters. We hope as many of you as possible can join us on Saturday and as always we will do the very best we can on your behalf.
Let’s get behind the lads. Together our community is capable of awesome things and we can’t wait to get going again this season!”
SQUAD NEWS:
- Harry Callin
- Ben Wilkinson
- Sam Baines
- Ryan Burns
- Jamie Corlett
- Jacob Crook
- Jack Higgins
- Al Maitland
- Tom Shimmin
- Blake Henwood
- Charlie Higgins
- Dean Leece
- Jack McVey
- Ste Riding
- Mike Williams
- Ste Whitley
- Frank Jones
- Luke Murray
Don’t forget that season ticket holders get ALL pre-season games free of charge included, purchase a season ticket here.
If you are looking to purchase tickets for this game alone, they can be purchased here.
