THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK
Life President⭐⭐🦐
I went and saw a very enjoyable training session today. It was mainly a very intense and fast match of about 10 v 10. No goalies as Smith and Bexon played with the Youth. PB and GC stood in goal each end to knock the ball back, not save shots. PB would blow the whistle about every 8 minutes for a 30-60 second break. It was an extremely good workout for all the players. It was a very good standard of football and highly competitive, as you would expect with players trying to earn a contract or a place in the starting Eleven. Adam Barrett stood out for me. He still roles back the years and is still very fit. He even plays the training games like a cup final. Nile Ranger was the one I really went to see. He was clearly not up to the fitness levels of all the other players as he hasn't played for so long, but........he really impressed me. He has a presence at 6ft 2ins. He played more of a midfield role, probably to get fit. He holds the ball up well, he's very strong, so was hard to wrestle the ball off. He has very quick and skillful feet for a big man. He clearly has all the attributes to play at a higher level, if only he can get the desire and his brain right. The fitness will come.
At the end they did a running hard routine, about 6 times the length of the pitch a few times. This is where I really felt sorry for Ranger. He started well but was lagging behind at the end and was bent over and had a little lie down. He was clearly in pain as his lungs must have been bursting. But like I said, he's been out of the game for so long, so this sort of thing is to be expected. Once he gets up to the fitness levels of the others, he can be some player, if he wants it bad enough. We shall see.
Very close to the end of training a Rossi ice cream van turned up. I thought, well he's not going to do much business. I wasn't sure the players nowadays would be allowed an ice cream, but at the end of training they all headed to the van, including the manager and all the trainers. They all had an ice cream or lolly. I think it must have been a treat from the club or Phil Brown. Good for morale and team bonding I thought. And yes, after the workout they just had, they all seemed happy about it. Then Ricky Duncan called the very young youth to the van, they all seemed reluctant as they thought he was joking, but he wasn't, and they all got an ice cream.
So basically, it was a very hard session that will have done all the players no end of good. I hope Nile Ranger sticks with it, because it will get easier the fitter he gets.
At the end they did a running hard routine, about 6 times the length of the pitch a few times. This is where I really felt sorry for Ranger. He started well but was lagging behind at the end and was bent over and had a little lie down. He was clearly in pain as his lungs must have been bursting. But like I said, he's been out of the game for so long, so this sort of thing is to be expected. Once he gets up to the fitness levels of the others, he can be some player, if he wants it bad enough. We shall see.
Very close to the end of training a Rossi ice cream van turned up. I thought, well he's not going to do much business. I wasn't sure the players nowadays would be allowed an ice cream, but at the end of training they all headed to the van, including the manager and all the trainers. They all had an ice cream or lolly. I think it must have been a treat from the club or Phil Brown. Good for morale and team bonding I thought. And yes, after the workout they just had, they all seemed happy about it. Then Ricky Duncan called the very young youth to the van, they all seemed reluctant as they thought he was joking, but he wasn't, and they all got an ice cream.
So basically, it was a very hard session that will have done all the players no end of good. I hope Nile Ranger sticks with it, because it will get easier the fitter he gets.
