Pre Season Progress

This weekend, as fans of clubs in the Football League up and down the country will be turning out in force to watch their heroes embark upon the new league campaign, I will probably be at Harefield United’s Preston Park ground to watch Hendon’s ninth (and my second or third) pre-season friendly of the summer. The following weekend, as fans of hundreds of Non League clubs will be turning out in slightly less force to watch their own slightly less lauded heroes embark upon their new league campaigns. I will be at a friend’s wedding, but checking twitter to find out how Hendon got on in their eleventh (and final) pre-season friendly of the summer. The weekend after that, at long last, I will join those fans of Ryman League clubs who will have by then spent six long weeks since the release of the fixtures in watching our heroes embark on their new league campaigns.

It’s been a long summer already, and the beginning of the new season seems as far away as it ever has. I don’t know the rationale behind the Ryman League’s preference for kicking things off a week before what feels like any other league in the kingdom, but I for one, would much rather we were beginning our league campaign a week earlier – even if this means the club would have to find another few quid to cover an extra week of wages to do so.

Perhaps though, the extra week this year will do Hendon good. It is no secret that there was a real sense of disappointment around the club at the end of April following such a bright start to the season. Looking back however, if any fan had been offered a season away from the struggle and toil of the relegation zone, an appearance in the 1^st round of the FA Cup and a Cup Final to boot, they would have bitten your hand (and probably the rest of your arm) off. Injuries, suspensions and loss of confidence really bit hard after New Year and with the odd exception, there was a feeling of anti climax as I left Tooting following our humbling at the hands of Wingate & Finchley in the final of the London Senior Cup. We looked sluggish and tired, and as far as I was concerned, one or two of the squad had reached the end of the road. We were in need of a minor overhaul.

Comments from the gaffer, Gary McCann, in the first few weeks of the summer break appeared to back up my thoughts. “The spine of the team needs addressing and we need a bit more experience in there,” he said in an interview with Barnet Today in mid-May, “everyone in the squad should be looking over their shoulder.” I was also heartened to read that he was hinting at a slight change in philosophy as well. “My blueprint is always that I very much want us to be a passing side, but we’ve got to have a plan B and need to have the personnel in the squad that allows us to play in a different way” he admitted.  Towards the end of last season, when we seemed to be shipping soft goals left, right and centre, there was a feeling around the terraces that at times we were our own worst enemies in trying to continually playing football. That’s fine when confidence is high, but there are times when you have to dig in and become a little more pragmatic in your approach. Macca had successfully led us to safety in the final third of the 2004/5 season employing a fairly ugly, but very successful 5 man defence to dig us out of the hole we were in.

So what has been done to address the issues? Reports suggest that Gary has been experimenting quite a lot with systems and styles during the friendlies up until now and consequently, results may not have been what they might have been – particularly against lower level sides who we tended to beat handsomely in previous years. This is not hugely important though at the moment. What I heard and read about our efforts in our friendly down at Havant & Waterlooville where we drew 0-0 and employed a different system was extremely positive – especially when the Hawks’ line up included players with the pedigree and ability of Sammy Igoe, Lee Peacock and Mark Nwojeki. With a bit of luck, there won’t be any repeats this season of the 8-1 dicking we received at Lowestoft last February.

Personnel wise, I must admit I expected perhaps one or two more departures from the squad than has been the case. James Reading appears to have signed for Hemel Hempstead Town, after initially being announced as a new signing for Northwood earlier in the summer, Belal Aite-ouakrim has made the step up to the Blue Square South with Staines Town and Eddie Munnelly looks to have disappeared off the face of the planet. It’ll be interesting to see how James and Belal get on. There is no doubting James’ ability as a goalkeeper, but I don’t think it can be disputed that he went through a bit of a crisis of confidence last season that led to a few soft goals being conceded. Given a choice between him and Berkeley, I would just about have come down on the side of Berkeley – purely because I think he’s a slightly more commanding figure than James. Belal has always infuriated me. He is a terrific player, probably one of the 10 most naturally talented I’ve seen in a Green shirt in my 15 years or so of supporting Hendon. What drove me mad about him is his unwillingness at times to pass, preferring instead to take on an extra man and lose possession. On his day, he is absolutely unplayable, all to often for my liking though he would go missing when you needed him to stand up and be counted. I wish him well at Staines though, and hope he does well. He has the talent. I hope he shows the desire as well.

On the flip side, there have been a number of new faces around the club. Confirmed before pre-season were Sean Thomas and James Fisher. I was delighted with the return of Sean from local rivals Wealdstone. Ever since the end of last season, knowing that Sean was likely to play second fiddle again to Jonathan North at Grovesnor Vale, I really hoped that Gary might try and persuade him back to Hendon. I cannot tell you how pleased I was when the announcement came. During the dark season of 2005/6, he was one of the few bright spots to emerge in my opinion. I rated him higher than Rikki Banks, who has since gone on to have a successful career in the Blue Square Premier, and thought that he was pretty shabbily treated by a handful of fans when on loan at Claremont Road from QPR. James Fisher’s arrival from St. Albans City was announced on the same day as Sean’s and with a few years of Blue Square South football behind him, albeit in a struggling side, James looks on paper like another shrewd addition to the squad. The other signing announced before the squad embarked on pre-season training was an old hero, Junior Lewis. Now 37 and with a long professional career as Peter Taylor’s left foot man behind him since his departure from Claremont Road in 1999, he has returned to the club in a player-coach capacity. I suspect we won’t be seeing a great deal of him on the field, but his experience should be of great benefit to what is still, a pretty young squad.

Returning Hero: Junior Lewis

 Additional faces since the beginning of the friendly programme have included right back Liam Hind (from Walton Casuals) and midfielder Carl McCluskey (from Bedfont Town) and 21 year old centre half Elliott Brathwaite who came on as a substitute against us in our friendly at Boreham Wood. With Bradley Fraser, who impressed me in his handful of appearances last season, still on the scene, I am fairly confident that we are well covered defensively for the new season. All we need now, as far as I am concerned, is maybe two new faces up front to give us options and alternatives to Greg Ngoyi and Aaron Morgan. Over the last week or so, we’ve seen former Arsenal, Bradford and Brentford striker Isaiah Rankin, who is the epitome of the journeyman footballer, ex-Northwood and Hampton veteran Lawrence Yaku and Canadian Under 23 international Elliott Godfrey trialing. To be honest, any two of these three names would be great additions in my opinion and ought to give us a pretty good goal threat.

So where do I think we’ll be come kick off time against Concord Rangers? I suspect the manager will be looking towards a play off push, but looking quickly around other clubs’ websites, it’s hard to know exactly where we can realistically look to aim for. Many clubs look to have improved their squads with some impressive looking signings, whilst one or two seem to be going through tougher times I’ll be looking at the likely runners and riders over the next week or so. As things stand  though if you offered me a top half finish and appearance in the main draw of the FA Cup again, I would bite both your hands off right now. I’m certainly quietly pleased with the way things are shaping up in terms of personnel so far this summer and will be looking forward to seeing how we’ve progressed on the pitch at the weekend since the game at Boreham Wood, all the while doing my best to avoid the opening weekend results in the Football League. It makes the Football League Show far better viewing when you don’t know what’s happened.