New Shrivenham forward Sean McKeon is looking forward to a return to football this coming Saturday [03.04.21] as Chris Hurley’s men get back to the pitch for the first time since the lockdown restrictions were lifted.
“I can’t wait, it’s going to be good to get back out there – it’s a good first friendly to have,”McKeon said. “It should ease us back in nicely and give everyone a bit of a blowout. Everybody will want to ease themselves back in to playing – you don’t want to go full pelt after such a long layoff, you don’t want people pulling up with injuries and I’m sure that will be the same for the, [Childrey FC]. They’ve got a good outfit there, they’ve got a couple of lads that I know – two or three were in the Wantage sides back in the 2019-20 season and Tommy Austin is their captain – he was the Assistant Manager at Wantage before me and he’s always played at Hellenic League and Southern Prem level, so they’ll have at least four, five, six established decent players in their side.”
With post-lockdown training for the First XI not getting underway until early next week, there will be obvious concerns about the fitness levels of many of those returning to Barrington Park ahead of the game, however Sean played down any such concerns.
“A few that I know who are coming over to play in the game have been doing a fair bit of training,” he continued, “they’re genuinely fit lads who put the effort in, so hopefully the players who are already at the club have been doing likewise, otherwise they’ll struggle. If we can get 45-minutes to an hour in to our legs each, then that’s a good start before training resumes.”
With such a long summer ahead and Shrivenham opting not to take part in the cup competition organised by the Hellenic League, it may well turn out to be an astute move by the Shrivenham manager who is likely well in to his plans for rebuilding a side ahead of the 2021-22 campaign and the player concluded: “Hopefully we’ll get another friendly arranged towards the end of the month [April 2021], then maybe one early May and one at the back end of the month then cut it off there.
“Pre-season is likely to begin the third week of June so I even though there’s been that long gap out of the game due to Covid, I think it’ll be important to have a bit of a relax with players doing their own bits before we return and hit pre-season hard.”
Shrivenham host North Berks League Division 1 side Childrey at Barrington Park on Saturday [April 3, 2021], kick off 1:30pm – however the game is being played behind closed doors due to the current Covid guidelines.
