By Andrew Tidswell
This weekend sees Spalding United’s return to Evo-Stik League football – with the big kick-off date away at Sutton Coldfield Town on Saturday.
It may well be the toughest start we could have hoped for, as Sutton Coldfield play all their home games on an artificial pitch.
Having had this pitch for several years, they are well prepared for the difference it brings – but we aren’t.
Some of you reading may be thinking ‘what is the difference?’ But I can tell you categorically, it makes a big difference.
The ball bounces differently, runs through and travels to and from you differently. These differences in a football match maybe a small detail as you could argue it is still 11 versus 11.
But as I touched upon in this column a few weeks ago, those small differences add up and more often than not mean the difference between success and failure.
So on to expectations – which should be high. I know that we have been installed as something like fourth favourite to win it.
I think this is a little premature, but we will start out with the focus of wanting to win the league, as will every other club who kicks off at 3pm in the same division.
During the close season, Spalding United has seen several players leave and plenty of new ones coming in to join us.
That’s meant we’ve all had to build up relationships and have spent time getting to know other players’ strengths – and maybe weaknesses – so we can begin to concentrate on the skills of the other players.
Being a Step Four club and being semi-professional, a regular problem that does occur is holidays and work times, which have often interrupted training schedules, planning and preparation for the coming season.
Nobody knows that more than us, as during this pre-season I can’t remember a time when we have had all players available.
I am no exception, as with my line of work, this time of year is the only chance I get to go away.
So, unfortunately, I will be missing the first two games due to being on holiday.
This isn’t ideal, but I believe the players we have at our disposal are capable of getting two positive results on the board by the time I am back.
With me being away, my usual column will take a week’s break. However, I’ll be keeping one eye on the sporting scene, both worldwide and local.
