News

I personally found that contrast very hard as I know the players did and of course I know you all did. I am so grateful for your ongoing support.

It has been good to have a short break which has given us a lot of time to reflect on last season and consider perhaps where mistakes were made and where we can do better.
The most obvious issue was our inability to covert chances to goals, however being hyper critical of myself I look back to the summer. The recruitment, the preparation…. it was too slow; it was not aggressive enough. We were searching for formula right into the start of the season and arrived at the league fixtures with far more questions than answers. This cannot happen again and will not happen again.

I felt we lost some of our identity by perhaps concerning ourselves with not losing games. We did not develop effective mechanisms for creating and scoring goals and by failing to do this you leave your defenders far too much work to do. As a promoted team this is perhaps natural, and easy mistake to make, however I will not make the same mistake twice.

Mitigation was that we are certainly not a cash rich club, it was difficult to make projections in the summer quickly enough and we struggled to compete in a fiercely competitive market. So how to combat this….
Well, the solution has been simple through taking the following actions:
1. Having a clear plan with re-establishing our identity
being central to this
2. Aggressive recruitment
3. Making our budget work by recruiting from below as well as above
4. Working bloody hard and starting very early!

I think we have certainly made a great start towards achieving these objectives, which I believe will see us through a really healthy pre-season, and in far better shape going into the competitive action.

We have assembled a working squad of 22 players to head back into pre-season training next week, all of which have been announced and introduced to you over the website and social media channels.

We will of course cast our eyes over some additional players through the course of the pre-season training sessions and games, however we are very confident in what we have assembled, and the capability of this group of players to implement a more adventurous and attractive style of play, which is more synonymous with myself and Tommo, and indeed the Rovers side of our promotion season.

It would be foolish of me to start stating lofty and unrealistic ambitions at this early stage but what I can tell you is I expect far better of myself and the players, and have a burning desire to deliver for this football club a far better and more enjoyable season for you all.

With the new arrivals and completion of the squad going into pre-season I would like to pass comment on some omissions from our announcements which will no doubt have been noticed.

Firstly, our captain and player of the year, Alex Morris is of course a glaring omission, and a huge loss to us. A fantastic player and far more importantly a really great lad, Alex has for two seasons been travelling in from Milton Keynes. This is a player who scarcely misses a training session, and his commitment to the cause has been unquestionable. Following a really strong season personally he has been in high demand, and it was inevitable that some of these suitors would offer lucrative proposals far closer to home. It came as no surprise to us that Alex decided to accept an offer which reduces his travelling significantly.
Myself and Tommo have had wonderful service from Alex across 3 clubs and many seasons, and can only wish him the absolute best. His new club have not yet made any announcement and so I do not feel it my place or appropriate to disclose that information, and no doubt that will be confirmed publicly in due course.

Another popular player moving to pastures new is Michael Williams. Affectionately known to most of us as “Doobz”. In Michael, we are losing a really great character and player who is ever popular with supporters.
Doobz again has decided to play closer to home and has taken up an offer from Hednesford Town. This has been announced and is in the public domain, and so all that remains is to wish him the absolute best of luck for the future. He will be an enormous loss.

Finally, Izak Reid has made the decision not to return this coming season, again making a move to pastures new for personal reasons which I fully understand and appreciate.
This is a player I respect greatly and have been really privileged to work with. Izak is truly the man for all seasons and playing in a host of different positions - always showing his class, experience, and ability.
This really is a blow, and I only regret that we could not see more of Izak last season due to a horrific injury sustained after the end of our promotion campaign in which Izak had made such an enormous contribution towards.
We wish all three lads the very best, they will always be welcome at the Moat Ground and forever Rovers at heart.

I look forward to seeing you on our return to action very soon.

Carl