ROSE EXCITED FOR NEW CHALLENGE AFTER 'BEST SEASON' OF HIS CAREER
By Rob Kershaw
After appearing on the bench for Argyle against Liverpool five years ago, Callum Rose has always been on a trajectory to do good things in football, and his career since then has seen him pick invaluable experience at Dorchester, Buckland, and Aylesbury.
The Brixham-born defender joined Parkway last year from the latter, and he was a key part of the squad that would go on to gain promotion by winning the league.
He grabbed one of the goals in the 4-0 win against Mangotsfield United and has been busy in pre-season preparing for what will be another busy term, this time in the Southern League Premier Division South.
Rose has been another prime example of the fantastic recruitment work Lee Hobbs has done since he took charge of the club during the 2016-17 season, and the additions of Rio Garside, Austen Booth, Dan Rooney, Tyler Ashmead, Theo Simpson, and Ben Seymour have provided further assurance of a superb scouting process at Bolitho.
With a bulkier, hungrier squad than ever in tow, the squad is in a good place going into the 22-23 campaign.
“It’s really good,” he told us.
“Obviously, the lads have just won the league, their energy’s probably on such a high but, for me, after the way we finished last year, I think everyone’s just so ready to go.
“And with the new signings, seeing the talent we’ve brought in, I think it’s just brought everyone on a bit more.
“So yeah, it’s going really well and there’s a lot of positive energy around the ground, around the club and there’s no bad blood anywhere.
“It’s just exactly as you would want to start your pre-season.”
The 23-year-old made 35 appearances last season in an impressive debut campaign towards the end of which he got his goal, but he candidly reveals that his season did not start out quite as well as he was hoping it would.
“It started off slow for me,” conceded Rose.
“I struggled to find my footing with the club, which wasn’t really planned!”
However, once he got going, it became one of the best seasons he has ever been a part of.
“I think Lee brought me in to be a bit of an impact, but I did struggle to find my feet, but once we got past that stage of winning, losing, winning, losing… when we got onto that winning streak that was it.
“I found my feet, I think everyone was the same, it was just a totally different team by halfway through the season.
“To tell the truth, it was probably the best season of football I’ve ever been involved in as a footballer, and coming from different clubs I’ve been at, it’s a big thing to say.
“But it’s the most enjoyable season I’ve been involved in.”
Most pre-season games are all about getting minutes into players’ legs and making sure everyone is ready to go for the new season, but revenge is on Rose’s mind after the 4-0 defeat at Mousehole last summer.
“This game’s a bit different because we went down their last season and they turned us over quite bad,” he explained.
“And they put us in our place a bit, I think we lost 4-0, so it’s minutes in the legs but it’s also going down there, turning the tables a bit and show them exactly the team we are.”
The Yellows went on to defeat the Cornish side 3-1 in the FA Cup later on last year, but Rose recalls the dread when they initially fell behind.
“I remember they went 1-0 up, and I thought ‘god, not again!’” he said.
“I think we thought ‘oh no, this can’t happen again,’ and then no we turned it round and got through to the next round.”
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