Magazine - No games for 3 weeks then Middlesboro come to town!

By Lee Jackson in Football on 1st Dec 2003 15:00

No games for 3 weeks, then a Middlesbrough warm-up!

We have recently been fortunate that we have had a good break between games, which in turn has allowed us to get some extra growth in before the first team played Middlesbrough yesterday. We have used the Mobile Lighting Rig (MLR) to toughen up the south goalmouth as this is the end that the away team use, so as this end doesn't see sunlight at this time of year and given that warm-ups can be quite intensive, we were fortunate to have the 21 day break.

As well as using the MLR, we also prepared our warm-up area for both teams keepers- this is an area

The main warm up by the rest of the team was conducted on the far side as requested, with the shuttles that leave notorious damage whenever teams do them, being carried off the pitch completely. Again it is a luxury to have this large area (off pitch) not afforded to most clubs.

The warm up caused very little damage to the pitch itself, or the area off it. I put this down to two things, the Desso system and

Half time brought a 'lads v dads' penalty shoot out which unfortunately for the 'Boro keeper and coach was done at the end they were defending in the second half, which meant that they had to do their half time practice in the corner till

To sum up, and not wishing to go against the grain, I found Middlesbrough were by far the best team we have hosted so far this season in regards to the warm up. However this is only because careful planning went in to providing the off pitch warm up areas.

I also have no doubt that if we didn't have the reinforcement of the Desso and also the strong rooted and densely covered south goalmouth that more damage would have been caused.

Read more articles in Football, by Lee Jackson or from December 2003.