Swanage Town and Herston Football Club wants to build upon its winning momentum when the team welcomes Shaftesbury Reserves on Saturday for a 3 pm kick off at Days Park, in their first match of the season in the Dorset Premier League.
The Swans have been in good pre-season form recently, having beaten Purbeck rivals Corfe Castle 5-2 last Tuesday and manager Tony Parrott wants to take that feel-good factor into this weekend’s contest.
Swans’ manager, Tony Parrott on the right with Roy Lock, the reserve team manager and sponsor Jamie Rudge of JSR Tree Care
“Consistency is a word we talk about a lot”
Prior to that, Parrott’s side triumphed over Wareham in the Haxell Cup on Wednesday 19th August 2020. Parrott says consistency will be the key to their success now. He said:
“Hopefully that win has given the players the confidence to go into Saturday knowing what they can achieve, and now it’s for us to make sure that we consistently do that week in and week out.
“Consistency is a word we talk about a lot, because over the last few years we’ve not had that, and to go on a run and to build that confidence, we need to have that consistency and that availability of players. This means players turning up each week and playing for 90 minutes – so putting in that hard graft to get the reward.
“It’s been brilliant to see the attitude and the commitment that the guys have put in – it’s been superb.”
Swans’ first team captain Paul Best in action
Coronavirus pandemic kicked off
Like most sport around the country, events drew to an unexpected halt when the coronavirus pandemic kicked off earlier this year.
Now, in order to be allowed to play this season, the team is having to comply with new coronavirus rules.
This includes maintaining social distancing before and after the match, sanitising hands on a regular basis, avoiding goal celebrations and where possible, players, coaches and officials are being asked to arrive changed and then shower at home afterwards.
Swans’ star midfielder Cameron Barnes
Resume a piece of ‘normality’ again
The Swan’s manager will be looking towards the more senior players in his side like captain Paul Best or star midfielder Cameron Barnes to help his side resume a piece of ‘normality’ again.
But manager Parrott says that instead of singling out any individuals, he has tried to install more of a ‘collective feel’ to his side, to get them over the line. He added:
“I think we will always be looking towards our captain Paul Best after he scored 20 goals for us last season.
“It was really gutting that the season became null and void and those goals are now in the abyss, and we have also got the likes of Cam Barnes.
“But it is the whole team really – we see it as a collective – the nice thing we have here is that we work very closely with the Reserve Team – but we are one club.
“So we try and set it up, so if we need players to come in then they will know what is expected of them and what job they need to do to make the team click and to get where we want to go.
“There will be one or two stand out players but it is more the collective and that showed last Tuesday in the game.
“Whereas historically in the last few seasons, we’ve kind of missed a goal scorer and it’s been Paul that has had to step up to the plate, but over the last week, we’ve had five different individual scorers.
“Hopefully this shows we’re starting to adapt and create those bonds and links across the team, to get us over the line and to where we want to be, which is hopefully up the league and challenging for cups!”
Swanage Town and Herston’s first team line up
James Langdon, T Chapman, Ogun Gundogdu, Landon Arthur, George Sparrow, Cam Barnes, Joe Clark, Charlie Brassington, Charlie Dyke, Sam Peacock, Paul Best, David Best, Ben Hodder, Taylor Hibbs, Sam Beale, Scott Dando, Jack Byron and Marcus Smith.
