The first three training sessions have gone well with boys working hard. They have returned with good fitness levels, which is pleasing, and I think the players know that with the big games coming up it was important that they looked after themselves.
I will look to give everybody 45 minutes at Bearsted and will most likely have a mix of signed players and trialists. Although the majority of the boys will play it will be a bit too early for a couple be involved.
Alex Flisher won’t play after returning from holiday on Thursday night, and Tom Mills also won’t be involved after being unavailable for last Saturday’s session. Paul Booth will be with the squad but may just do some training by himself; at his age Paul knows his body well and feels he will be best served doing some more fitness work. Deren Ibrahim will also sit out tomorrow so I can have a good look at Charlie Mitten and another goalkeeper I have on trial.
We have had a few trialists with us over the last week and some of these players will be included at Honey Lane.
Three or four boys from the Soccer Elite academy will be involved and we also have a lad who has been out for a year with injury but was with Aston Villa prior to that. We can get an idea of the standard of these players at training, however the only real way to see what they’ve got is to see them alongside the first team in a game like this.
From the reserves we will also have Josh James who made the bench for the first team at the back-end of last season. I would have liked to have had more of the reserves boys involved, however with the amount of trialists we have at the moment there isn’t room in the squad at the currently.
Once the squad is more settled down I will speak with Jim Bodle and will be looking to give some of his recommended players a chance with the first team.
