Manager Kevin Horlock reflects on last night's win at Felixstowe.
DK: A nice workout for pre-season and a good result?
KH: Yeah, look, I know it's pre-season, result maybe is not important, but it does create good habits. Obviously, winning can become a habit, like we've seen last season. So, yeah, it's nice to win the game.
A little bit disappointed, we were a little bit disjointed tonight. It does get that way when you play two different teams, obviously, each half in pre-season early on. But one thing, I suppose, positive out of it, we have got the positive result.
And we've probably got a bit of fitness out of it because they were better in the second half. I'm fully aware we've made changes and there's players playing that ain't played much and so on and so forth. But it is what it is. Yeah, I think the biggest disappointment is a couple of little niggles there. Jacob Lay's come off injured after going on and Harley Curtis has rolled his ankle slightly. So, I'm hoping they're not too bad. But, yeah, it's another game down, pre-season can be quite frustrating. Sometimes it can give you a little bit of false hope in terms of when you win loads of games, when you lose loads, it can put a negative on it. I just want to get through it.
The lads get fit and we look forward to, obviously, our first season at Step 2.
DK: Would you say it's deserved one-nil lead at the time?
KH: I don't know really. I'm not really looking, do we deserve it, do we not? We're looking for fitness. We're looking for players to get minutes, players forming partnerships with other players. So, did we deserve it? I don't know. I think certainly from the second half, which is fresher in my mind, I think they probably deserved maybe another goal. So, it could have been a draw. But like I said, making changes does make games a little bit disjointed and a little bit false in pre-season.
DK: A bit odd to have two own goals though. We never really get that.
KH: No, look, I think we've worked so hard over the last several years and we've been unfortunate in certain aspects and I think maybe we're getting paid all our luck back in a short period. The second one was a little bit bizarre, I must admit. But they're all goals, they all counted at the end of the day.
DK: You spoke about the second half being a bit more disjointed. What did you make on the first half performance?
KH: Yeah, we did okay. Obviously, still early days for us in pre-season. The pitch didn't play as slick as it probably looked. It was a little bit dry and the game was a little bit slow. But we could have been a little bit more aggressive and got closer to them. It was like a typical pre-season game, which can be frustrating to be a part of, to play in at times and to watch. So, it's another one chalked off. There's minutes in lads' legs. Like I say, everyone's got minutes tonight and we'll probably change that slightly going forward now where lads get a little bit longer, 60-30, and you've got to earn your minutes to create that competition for what is going to be a difficult league campaign for us but one that we're very excited about.
DK: What do you make of the squad so far? Happy with it?
KH: Yeah, I'm happy with it. We've obviously got a couple missing tonight. Jamie McGrath's not about and Patch (Patrick Brothers) is unwell. Obviously, we're looking to bring a couple of lads in loan from Ipswich, which we can hopefully get over the line in a week or so. We're in a good place. Like I say, the only disappointment tonight is a couple of little injuries really and I'm hoping they're not bad. So, we train Thursday and then we go again with a home game on Saturday where I'm hoping it'll be a little bit more realistic in terms of we'll leave the same team on for a longer period, which means it won't then go disjointed.
DK: Anyway, the trialists, do you reckon you'll sign any of them?
KH: I don't know. Still, obviously, we've trained a few times. We've had obviously a tough game in pre-season against Braintree. So, they're doing okay. We've got competitions for places. So, we'll make a call on that in probably seven days.
DK: Moving onto Saturday, the Kevin Horlock Derby!
KH: I had fond memories at Maldon, I really enjoyed it. It was a tough gig at times. With how it was set up, alongside my job at Colchester, I did Maldon for a couple of seasons. We got the play-off final and had heartbreak in the play-off final. But it is a good club. I enjoyed my time there. But I only want one team to win on Saturday. Us? Of course.
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