Our much anticipated league season opener against St Blazey is upon us as we look to build on an excellent team performance and result at Buckland on Saturday in the FA Cup where we triumphed 3 – 2.  We certainly need to move on from that game quickly as a new challenge is upon and most importantly a league fixture which is our absolute priority this season as we aim to get into a promotion position.

This is exciting times at Parkway as we look to achieve promotion into the Western League. We commence the league season with a real goal and objective which we are very much looking forward to the challenge of as a club. There is a real buzz about the place which we hope reflects on the team and our performances this season.

Getting off to a good start this campaign is absolutely vital for us. Last season we started slowly and dropped too many silly early points leaving ourselves a mountain to climb.

We certainly know our home form will be very important and making best use of our outstanding playing surface and terrific home support will be a real advantage. We need to learn from last season where we performed very well against the top sides in our division but too often dropped unnecessary points against lower placed teams.

Darren and I are really pleased with how the squad has shaped up and we are delighted with how the new players have settled in. There is an excellent team spirit in the dressing room and we have a great blend of some exciting youth and experience at our disposal. We have terrific strength and depth in the squad this season with great versatility and cover for all positions which has proved to be a vital ingredient at this stage of the season with so many absentees. As like most teams at this stage of the season we are certainly not at full-strength emphasising the importance of big squad. We have several key players missing through suspension, holiday and injury.

Over the next few games we welcome them all back and we will then have an excellent squad at our disposal to challenge on all fronts

Preseason has gone extremely well for us. We have won all our fixtures this preseason but we need to give credit to the lads for the effort they have all put into each game. It has been mentioned that the games were too easy however we have beaten two opponents from the league above. Preseason is about match fitness / sharpness for all players, working on shape and formations and getting into good habits / getting basics right. The friendlies have certainly enabled us to do that and we approach the new campaign in very confident mood. There is no better practice / training than a match itself. Good habits are so important and winning games and keeping clean sheets is a good ingredient to success. We hope to continue this now as it all starts for real.

Tonight’s opponents St Blazey will be a real tough encounter. Alan always puts together very competitive sides and he is a very experienced within this league. Last season St Blazey gave us two fantastic matches which we narrowly won and probably fortunate to especially in the home game. St Blazey have some very good experienced players at their disposal and we will certainly need to be on best for evening to pick up three points to kick start this season.

We really hope you enjoy the game and we certainly hope to see you back here again on Saturday when we entertain Newquay at home in the league and throughout the season.