Football returns after short break
Berkhamsted v Parkway | Match PreviewAfter a week’s break from action, Plymouth Parkway return to the pitch on Saturday as they travel to Hertfordshire to take on Berkhamsted FC.
Despite having a weekend free of football, The Yellows used it to get in some valuable team bonding time.
Speaking on the weekend, Parkway manager Chris McPhee said: “We had the weekend free, but we took the players down to Plymouth Marjon and played some paddle to give them an opportunity to do something a little bit different and build relationships off the pitch as well.”
“It was an opportunity for us to do something social, but in a competitive environment, with a bit of fitness alongside of it. The lads enjoyed it, and we’ve got some good things off the back of it.
“The staff team actually won, which was quite interesting. There was a couple of very, very good players in there and one or two that I think it was the first time they’d picked up a racket.
“It was certainly a very competitive hour and a half. A big thank you to the guys down at Marjon for having us and like I said, it’s really interesting to see the boys different sport and a different attitude towards something that some of them haven’t done before.
“The competitive spirit was still there, and the will to win and the desire to work really, really hard in a slightly different environment was also good to see it.
“It certainly it built some, built some relationships.”
After picking up a hamstring injury in the fixture against Weymouth, summer signing Rocky Neal seems set to make his long-awaited comeback to action.
“We trained on Tuesday evening and the boys are looking sharp”, said McPhee.
“It was good to see Rocky back in training, looking pretty lively, and he will be in the squad for the weekend.
“Obviously we’ll have to make sure we look after him, coming back from a month out, because we’ve got now three games in eight days, all away from home.
“It’s good to see him back at the moment on the training pitch, and certainly gave the boys a bit of a boost.”
McPhee will be hoping that Saturday’s fun will now help to turn promising Parkway performances into points when they travel away to Berkhamsted.
The Comrades clinched promotion to the Southern Premier last season with a 5-0 win against Flackwell Heath in the Division One Central playoff final.
The transition to life in a new division has gone smoothly for Berkhamsted with The Comrades sitting 10th in the league after three wins, three losses and a draw in their opening seven fixtures.
Speaking on the challenge ahead, McPhee said: “it’s one of those where we’ll be looking forward to playing a team that we don’t really know a huge amount about.”
“Obviously, they’re new to the league. They had a successful last season last year so there’ll be lots of confidence and they’ll have that kind of winning spirit or momentum within the group.
“Sometimes that can start the next season on a positive note, and it looks like they’ve done that. Obviously, we don’t know a huge amount about them, but equally, and hopefully, they don’t know a huge amount about us.
“It’s an opportunity for us to go into that game and use the momentum we’ve created from the back end of the Dorchester game.
“There’s going to be plenty of confidence in the group off the back of that, and the fact that we’ve had a free weekend, and it’s been a long time in between games, the boys are itching to get going. Hopefully that’ll add to the energy in the tempo of the game.
“From our perspective, we know that Berkhamsted have had a solid start, they’ll be full of confidence. Obviously, being at home as well is going to contribute.
It’s just a case of just making sure that we have the right attitude and the right application. That’s something that’s starting to come along with us and the thing that we have missed a little bit this season is our quality with the ball and the use of the ball.
“Some games, we’ve got caught up in how the opposition are playing and making it a bit frantic and end-to-end, and a little bit more direct than we’d like to go at times.
“We’re just giving the players that reminder and confidence to play our football at the right times and try and build into games a little bit more rather than being a little bit more gung ho.
“We’ve worked on a couple of things in training. We’ve spoken about a few things over the last few days, and we’ve got another opportunity to see some of the boys training tomorrow (Thursday) night.
“We’ll be certainly going into that game on Saturday with a renewed confidence and desire to reignite our season.”
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