It’s been 10 days since our last pre-season friendly but now the friendlies are coming thick and fast in the next 3-4 weeks as we host and travel to a number of sides to prepare for the new season. Today, we sat down with striker Joe Jagger to preview tonight’s game against a Huddersfield Town XI who just like the Orange Army, will be looking to get match fitness into their players ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.
“It felt great to get back out there against Sheffield FC, putting the kit on and playing again on a football pitch after so long felt amazing. It was also nice to get back into the game day feeling of having a routine in preparation for the game. The squad has a really good feel factor about it, especially with how the Sheffield FC friendly went but not just from that win, the whole pre-season mood has been positive and that’s important. Every session we have, there’s always a feel good vibe and there’s a lot of moments where the players feel like this season has the potential to be a great one. Not just the players tho, the coaching team, the media team, the whole club at the minute has a really good buzz about it.”
Since the start of pre-season, the players have been taking part in strength and conditioning sessions with Ripped Joel from MP Fitness in Birstall and although it’s been a mental challenge, Joe believes it will have a huge benefit come the start of the season.
“If you would have asked me prior to the first session we had with big JigyJ, I would have said I’m dreading it! Since then though, the progress from the first session to last night’s session has been massive in all the players fitness and recovery times so they are definitely having a huge positive impact on all of us physically and mentally”
Tonight’s test sees us take on a Huddersfield Town XI who are reportedly bringing an U19 side that have been back in training for the past week or so but Joe knows that means nothing when it comes to the game.
“I think whenever you play a professional league side, there’s always that element of understanding that they will come and try to play nice football so in that case, it will be tough to combat that but I would say we are all ready for the task and we will hopefully get a positive result from the game. The main difference between playing a men’s team and an academy team is experience and having knowledge of how to win games in different ways. They will have a style of play that they will try stick to whereas I think we have a few different options for how we can approach the game and adapt when needs be.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe has been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure when the season started again, he’d be in better shape and he can certainly see that his hard work is starting to show. “I believe that I’m a lot fitter physically and mentally and that’s just the amount of work we have put in over the pre-season schedule and during the pandemic. We do a lot of our work when the mind and legs are tired which has had a massive impact on my fitness and recovery levels for sure.”
Over the weekend, there has been a massive cry for the DCMS to review their stance on non league fans being able to enter stadia with the hashtag #LetFansIn trending on social media with Joe agreeing with what the fans and clubs have been saying so far.
“I think we all know that fans in football, especially in non league, are one of the most important aspects of any club. Not having them there from a player’s point of view takes away that edge and that extra bit of buzz that we react to which gives us that extra 10%. From a clubs point of view, it’s absolutely huge financially. The impact has been seen already with clubs like Droylsden being forced to make tough decisions. Let’s hope that in the very near future something comes from this campaign and we can get back to how the game should be played and enjoyed.
