Johnnie Jackson is encouraged by the progress made during the summer and excited by the prospect of a new season ahead.
Our manager was naturally pleased with how our pre-season campaign went as a whole as we today wrapped things up with a 2-0 victory over Wealdstone.
Here Johnnie discusses our preparations for the League Two season, Omar Bugiel’s impact and the departure of Alex Woodyard.
Watch the full interview below.
ON BEATING WEALDSTONE…
It was a tough game today – they’re different to most of the National League sides that you’ll come up against because of the way they build and move the ball. We had to get our press and our shape right today. They kept us on our toes, it was a great final workout.
ON OMAR BUGIEL…
He’s settled in really well. He was an early deal that we got done. He’s someone I know very well from when we played against him in this league. We did our homework on what type of character he is and he hasn’t disappointed.
ON ALEX WOODYARD’S EXIT…
It was a bittersweet moment. I’m very fond of Woody. He’s been a great servant to the football club, he’s been here a long time and played a lot of games.
I spoke to him early in the summer about wanting to freshen things up in order to take us in a new direction and he understood that. He’s been the ultimate professional during pre-season even though he probably thought that he’d end up moving on. He leaves us with all of our best wishes.
ON PRE-SEASON AS A WHOLE…
As far as pre-seasons go we have to be really pleased with that. We’ve had a really solid six weeks of hard work. It’s always nice to be unbeaten heading into the season. The harder tests are in the weeks to come but the lads has performed and they look fit and strong.
We’re making ourselves hard to beat and it shows in the fact that we only conceded one goal in pre-season. Every player plays their part in it. It’s all down to the work that we do out of possession. This group is only just getting going, there’s still a lot that we can improve.
We’ve also got threats at the top end of the pitch, as we’ve seen today, we scored two different types of goals. That first goal all came from Omar’s strength, it’s what he likes. Then you’ve got Josh (Davison) and Ali (Al-Hamadi) who like to play on the shoulder. We’ve got the variety which allows us to do different things.
We’re as ready as we can be. The six weeks have flown by. We’re excited by the direction of travel. The real stuff starts next week. We head up to Grimsby in a lot better shape than when we finished there last season.
MATCH PICS: Ian Stephen (Pro Sports Images)