So Saturday the 6th August already!! Where did that break go?? The season begins for us with an intriguing FA Cup encounter away at Buckland Athletic. Unusually this season kicks off with an FA Cup tie which is a real shame however we do not have far to travel to face our Western League opponents. Buckland are an excellent side and previously promoted from our league which we hope to emulate ourselves this season. Buckland are a very strong outfit but we know a lot about them, their players and pitch so we go into the game with a little knowledge and experience from previous seasons. They have competed at the top end of the Western League since being promoted so we will have to be at our best to progress through to the next round.

This will be a terrific opportunity to play and test ourselves against a top Western league side. In preseason we have fared well against our Western League opponents Bridport and Cribbs so we will be hoping to build on that with success this weekend.

The FA Cup is an amazing competition to be involved in and the players should feel privileged to have the opportunity to be playing in the most prestigious cup competition in the world. We had a fantastic run last season beating some top opposition before eventually going out to Merthyr Town. It would be special to emulate that again and possibly go a little further. At our level our cup final would be reaching the first round proper. That in itself would be a mammoth task and a real dream for Plymouth Parkway!!!

Preseason preparations have been very good and the new additions have settled in very well. There is a fantastic team spirit amongst the lads and there is a real buzz about Plymouth Parkway at the moment which we hope to carry into the season. Friendlies and training have gone well and also results have been excellent which we hope to keep building upon. Preparations have been good and we have won all six friendlies without conceding a goal in our last 5 matches. We are hoping to continue the good habits of winning and keeping clean sheets as we go into the new season.

The squad for Saturday as always comes with its own problems as most clubs are experiencing at this time of the season Despite a very strong squad with good depth we do have several key players unavailable due to suspension, injury and holidays. Gradually over the next few games we do have them all returning so we will very much look forward to being at full strength in the coming weeks.

We are all really looking forward to the season actually starting now as we get down to business. We have our final open training session on Thursday on the pitch with Paul Sturrock. Paul has watched a couple of matches now and shared some fantastic advice and we are looking forward to him taking our final session and passing on his wealth of knowledge and experience.
We hope as many supporters as possible can join us in Newton Abbot on Saturday to cheer on the lads.
COYY

Kev Hendy