THE Robins are revved up and raring to go for the start of the new season next month.
Currently midway through their pre-season fixtures – which has already seen them go up against the likes of Bath City and Weston-super-Mare – Frome Town FC’s manager, Danny Greaves, has told Frome Times that he believes that the “challenging” line-up of friendlies will stand the team in good stead for kick-off next month.
“It’s gone as well as could be expected,” said Danny about the preseason far. “We purposefully built a challenging pre-season fixture list as we felt that we needed to step things up after last year’s season – we were slightly undercooked going into the season.
“So we put seven fixtures in place and five of those fixtures are against teams at a higher level above us.
“So far we’ve played two Western League sides [Hallen AFC and Keynsham] and won those relatively comfortably. We’ve played Bath City from the Conference South – lost 4-1, but we were competitive and got a lot out of that.
“And most recently on Friday [16th July] we played Weston-super-Mare from the Southern Prem, lost 2-1, but again we were really competitive and got a lot out of that. So I’m pleased with what we’ve done so far. We’re playing clubs from higher leagues, so you expect them to be tough fixtures.
“Against Bath we created a number of chances, the game could have finished 4 all. They were much more clinical than us, and these are the lessons you take away – the higher you go, the more clinical you need to be. And against Weston, a similar story, we created a number of chances, and it was a fairly even game, but they scored in the last minute from a set-piece, which was fairly disappointing.
“But overall, we’ve taken a lot away from each of these games, which will stand us in good stead for the start of the season.”
About the start of the upcoming Southern League, which kicks off for Town on Saturday 14th August with a home match against Highworth Town, Danny said, “Looking forward to it – there’s three weeks to go and it will come around quickly.
“We have a tough opening, but after so long without any football we’re just all raring to go and looking forward to the 14th August.”
Remaining
pre-season friendlies :
• Saturday 24th July – Yate Town (H), Friendly, 3pm
• Friday 27th July – Bristol Rovers U23 (H), Friendly, KO 7.30pm
• Friday 6th Aug – Taunton (A), Friendly, 7.45pm
