Bish: “The Players Showed Eagerness and Energy off the Ball”

Black and Greens Manager Matthew Bishop was in a positive mood as he reflected on Saturday’s 2-1 win at Caernarfon Town in Aber’s first pre-season friendly of 2016.

“This was only the first game in a programme leading up the TNS game on August 14th, however I was pleased with the performance on Saturday, and there were certainly more positives than negatives. It was the first game for our new group of Players against a good side, the majority of whom had won the Cymru Alliance League last season.“

After a tentative start the Seasiders really started to purr and Bishop was impressed:

“We took 10 or 15 minutes to settle as I think the boys were so keen to do well, but once we settled down we kept the ball well, moved it well, created chances and probably could have scored more goals than we did. We made a lot of changes in the second half but the Players who came on also showed their quality. We are still looking at a couple of new faces and they also did well.

The important things for me were integrating the squad, getting minutes on the pitch, and seeing some of the things we’d been working on coming out in the game. The Players showed eagerness and energy off the ball, which will be important going forward.”

The game was also notable for the performance of 16 year old Academy goalkeeper Ollie Farebrother who did as much as anyone to protect Aber’s victory:

“Winning is important but it was also great to see young Olly Farebrother making his First Team debut at the age of 16, and he did himself no harm at all. He was given a chance and I’m delighted for him.

Finally it was also good to see the group of Players gelling. The dressing room afterwards was a good place to be and the Players were together – and this is very important. No one’s getting carried away but we’ll hopefully move on from here and get better.“

Bishop’s charges will be back on duty tomorrow night at Caersws’ Recreation Ground for another pre-season friendly with a 7.30pm kick off.

“We’re looking forward to another good challenge at Caersws on Wednesday, and at Porthmadog on Saturday. The Players will get more minutes on the pitch and we’ll look to carry on where we left off on Saturday”.

---