The start of the new season brings hope and excitement to all clubs and their fans, and on Saturday, Eastwood Town travel to Butcher`s Park to face Droylsden, the bookmakers` second favourites for the Blue Square Bet North title.
This game is followed by home games against Worcester City and last season’s play-off hopefuls Workington.
Eastwood boss Paul Cox said: “We certainly have one of the hardest starts to the season. The bookies are seldom wrong and they say anyone who finishes above Alfreton and Droylsden will win the league, but I can assure fans, we will be working hard to get a result.
“We are determined to improve on last season’s league position so we need to compete against the big teams and to do this we need to go back to the old Eastwood mentality. We can’t compete with the majority of the teams in this league in terms of infrastructure and resources, so we need tough competition for places within our squad.”
Eastwood have had a pretty good pre-season and they have embedded several new players into the remnants of last season’s squad. However, Cox is aware that the squad needs strengthening in several areas and was running the rule over a number of triallists this week.
“There are a lot of players who have been released from professional clubs and they have spent the summer on trial or training with League One or Two clubs. For one reason or another they haven’t been able to secure a full time contract, so now they are looking to play football at the highest level they can.”
The good news for the Badgers is that defender Matt Bailey and goalkeeper John Danby should both be fit for Saturday.
Bailey was left with a bruised shin after last week’s game at Rushall Olympic and Danby has responded well to treatment for a groin strain sustained in the home friendly with Mansfield Town.
