Joint Manager for the day Patrick Brothers reflects on Needham's final Pre-Season Friendly (4-1 win over Cambridge City), pre-season as a whole, the League opener at Stratford, and provides an update on his return from injury.
DK: Nice win today, what do you make of it?
PB: Yeah, very good win going into next week, (we) told the lads that obviously we're treating this like the first game of the season. So energy, tempo, the way we play, the way we press needs to be the way we want to do against Stratford next Saturday, so yeah very pleasing. Very pleasing to score four goals, not so pleasing the way we conceded, but when you are 3, 3/4 up, you do relax a little bit, which is a bit frustrating but I can't take anything away from the lads.
DK: Yeah, it's a very clinical second half from us.
PB: Yeah, first half we had a lot of possession, a lot of iffy chances, a lot of opportunities to be a little bit more creative, or a little bit more careful on the ball. So (we) addressed it at half-time and just said, "look, take care, trust your ability," and then after half-time we came out with a different front five really. We were sharper and more clinical around, in and around, the box, and credit to the guys, because it could've been another 0-0 stalemate - bit like Stowmarket, if we didn't up that tempo in the final third.
DK: Is that something you spoke about at half-time, wrapping crosses round the defence?
PB: Yeah, I think our build up play has always, always, been good - ever since I joined the club, but for some reason we tend to sometimes make the wrong decision - or we don't back the decision we're going to make, so what I just said is, "have some confidence in yourselves, your first decision is normally the best, and yeah when you get into certain areas, do a slightly different knock, or a slightly different ball," and yeah it worked well with good movement and good quality.
DK: Their goal aside, an all round good team performance.
PB: Yeah I think very well. I think back 5, 6, seven - if you include Hammy (Kyle Hammond) and Dylan (Williams) to that - were solid. They had a slight threat with the counter attack, but that normally came from our dispossession in the midfield when they hit us on the counter, but from start to finish, I said it at the start, I said "I want a win, I want momentum going to the first game of the season," and that's what we got!
DK: Do you think we've had the perfect preparation for Saturday?
PB: Yeah, I think so. I think it's been a good pre-season in total, all the lads have got good minutes. We've had opportunity to look at players in different positions and people being away, people being going on holiday and coming back - which is part and parcel of pre-season - but in general it's been positive. We've got some momentum and obviously we haven't lost, which is always nice.
DK: Yeah, like you say, an unbeaten pre-season and at times been really clinical.
PB: Yeah, I guess there's always room for improvement, obviously like today we didn't want to concede, the game against Newmarket we shouldn't be conceding three goals - but that was our first friendly. We've always said it, every friendly, we get slightly better, slightly more to the point of that first game of the season and I think based on that performance, and what I've seen in training, and Kev and Tom have been saying we are ready. With two good (training) sessions this week we should be there.
DK: Yeah and we've got a full squad available!
PB: Yeah, everyone's fit, Seth (Chambers)'s got a minor knock to his knee, which is a bit of a shame, because he's definitely a part of the squad, he's obviously a threat going forward, but that is why we've got a squad of 16/17. The likes of Lettsy (James Letts) and Flynn (Crosthwaite) weren't with us today when they've had a good pre-season with us, but that just shows how strong our squad is and obviously anyone who's not with us is then going to improve, hopefully, how the Reserves (Under-23s) get on, so it's good.
DK: Exactly, how do you see next week (Stratford game) going, ideally?
PB: We've already mentioned it, we can only really take what we know of those teams, they're going to be physical, they're going to be up for it. Especially away from home, we've got to take the journey into account, the way we prepare, and if we go off last year they battered us, so we do our own one, but we know as a squad it's going to be tough, but if we're on it from start to finish - and we use the whole squad, the fifteen, the sixteen, the management and everything else as a collective we should get a positive result.
DK: Yeah, it's important to get off to that good start.
PB: Definitely, momentum is massive and you don't want to go into the first, second, the third game, still trying to find your win. So I think, yeah, solid foundation once you've got (that first win), and hopefully if we're as creative and clinical as we were in the second half, as I said I want to win, but the result needs to be positive, definitely!
DK: What do you think needs to be implemented to right the wrongs of last season?
PB: I think we all know Needham as a football club are pretty on the eye, like to play a nice bit of football, we've got some very, very, talented footballers in the squad. I think last year we just missed the other side of the game a bit too often. It's the nitty gritty, the second ball side of things, the character when you do go one-nil down, and no disrespect to anyone who's past or present, but I think we've got a better balance this year, of that kind of nastiness, what you need at this level. So we've got a sort of Plan A, Plan B and now maybe even a Plan C with the players we've got, so we can get that right balance of pretty stuff to not so pretty stuff as it were, we should be definitely up there!
DK: The new signings that have come in, some of whom are still young, bring that extra experience.
PB: It's something that you have to get a nice blend of, we have got some young, really good, talent, coming through the Academy and obviously we've brought into the building, but you can't have all youngsters. You can't have all experienced guys, you've got to have a good blend, and a good balance and who we've brought through the door has definitely added to that. It just means we're going to be more competitive, going to be more players to positions, so the players will have to play well to keep their shirt and basically fight each other to get in that starting eleven, which is a great thing.
DK: It's going to give Kev, Tom, you and Irish all a headache?!
PB: Yeah, again, we've always said it, it happened a bit last year we were a bit low on numbers and again without being disrespectful sometimes the team 'picked itself,' but this year I'll be honest with you a bit of a headache picking the team, and then you're thinking, "oh, who am I going to bring on, who's worthy of coming off or coming on.' That kind of headache to have, which is great, and obviously come Saturday with the two sessions coming up obviously Kev and Tom will have to make that decision, and no doubt they're already thinking about it! It's a good place to be!
DK: Definitely, is your recovery from injury still going ok?
PB: As well as it can, obviously back on my feet, walking around, getting involved with the warm up a little bit, taking that, but still need a bit more time for it to fully recover. The idea is to try and get to sort of October in the way I'm going already and hopefully start doing a bit of physical stuff with and without the ball, so yeah positive so far!
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