FROME Town manager, Danny Greaves, has said that the action on the field will be ‘ramping up’ as the team prepare for kick off in the new season and take another stab at promotion.
Speaking to Frome Times ahead of their friendly match against Weymouth (that was scheduled for 19th July), manager Danny said, “It’s been really good, we’ve played three games so far – we lost narrowly to Salisbury, which was off the back of only two training sessions – so that was more about getting minutes into the boys. And then we stepped it up against Longwell Green, coming away with a convincing 7-1 win – a really good game full of attacking play. A lot of the boys, the new lads, really stood out in that game, putting in some strong performances.
“And then the Southampton B team, a massive thank you to them for coming over to us, they brought a really strong team – one player had Premier League experience – and we more than matched them and put in a really good performance, drawing 2-2.
“Overall, I’m really pleased with the pre-season so far. Now it ramps up with three weeks to go before we kick off the new season.
“We have another friendly at home to Taunton Town on Friday 22nd July, kick off at 7.45pm – it would be great if the supporters come out to take a look at the new signings. And once the season kicks off I would very much encourage the supporters to come out and get behind the lads, like they did last season. The attendance for last season was superb – we averaged over 500 – and we’re going to need that level of support again. It makes a massive difference.”
Fixtures for the new 2022/23 season were announced this month, and manager Danny says there is a lot to look forward to.
He said, “It’s always an exciting day when the fixtures come out! We can start looking at some of the good games that are coming up – the first game of the season (13th August) we will be playing Evesham. The first game is always a bit of an unknown, as you don’t know what the other club has been doing over the summer. But we know that Evesham has a new manager in place and have made a few new signings – so they will be stronger than last year, so that will be a tough game.
“We are obviously looking forward to the Boxing Day game, away against Melksham – who we have played over the last couple of years – that’s always a great occasion. And we have another local derby (first up on 22nd October) against recently promoted Westbury United.
“We’ve got AFC Totton in our third league game (27th August), and already that looks like being a really big game in our season with both teams having aspirations of promotion. So yeah, lots of challenges and lots of unknowns really!”
About his ambitions for the season ahead, Danny said, “I think every team starts off the season with promotion ambitions – but we’ve been up there the last couple of years and have been unlucky to miss out. Over the course of the summer we’ve had a bit of a rebuild, bringing in a couple of new additions. We’ve tried to strengthen the squad to give us that little bit of extra oomph. Our aim is to go out, compete every single week, and hopefully we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.”
