Romans boss runs the rule over new arrivals

ALCESTER Town boss Aaron Blackwood praised his defence for hitting the ground running after chalking up two clean sheets in their opening pre-season friendlies.

The Romans followed up a goalless draw against Northfield Town with another 0-0 at home to Cradley Town on Monday as the manager took the chance to run the rule over a number of trialists.

Blackwood said: “We have had a lot of new faces come in for us to have a look at so these games are an opportunity for us to do that and hopefully build on what we did last season.

“We have used around 18 players in each of the matches so far and that will also be the plan for Saturday’s game with Paget. After that we will start to whittle things down to a more manageable number.

“We have been fortunate to have kept the majority of last year’s squad, only losing Jimmy Ward to Redditch Borough. Our target was to try and keep hold of everyone and we’ve more or less done that. Now it is about adding a little bit more strength and depth.

“We finished the season well and we want to continue that momentum into this season. It starts in pre-season with the hard yards and we have had good numbers in training where we’ve done a lot of running.”

Clear chances were few and far between against Cradley with the pick of them falling to striker Odane Barnes in the opening half.

Blackwood added: “It was Odane’s first game and he had around 55 minutes but Liam Fullerton and Ricardo Richards have yet to play. At the moment it has been our backline who have had the minutes and they have kept two clean sheets. We know we need to score some goals and be better in the final third but we have enough quality so we know that will come.”