Gray looking for confidence from first game
Stuart Gray says tonight's opening pre-season friendly at Brackley Town will be important in building his Cobblers squad's confidence ahead of the forthcoming season.
Cobblers travel to the BGB Southern League Premier Division outfit in their first match of the summer schedule, a fixture that has traditionally been more about stamina than success.
While conditioning comes first for the manager – he will rotate his squad to ensure everyone plays half the match – he also wants to see a strong showing from his players.
Abdul Osman and Liam Davis will make their debuts for the club, while Leon Constantine will get a first chance to renew his strike partnership with Adebayo Akinfenwa.
Boss Gray wants to see his front men get in the goals as early as possible, starting at St James' Park tonight, and he said: "The fitness levels are very good.
"Nobody got any fines for coming back overweight, and the body fat levels were always fine.
"Now it's about match sharpness and for that nothing beats playing games. If you're scoring goals and creating chances it will get our confidence up.
"The strikers will want to be scoring goals in every game they play and I only ever set my teams up to win matches, no matter who we're playing."
The Brackley game is the first of four the side will play in the space of the next week, with games in Dusseldorf against Vihren Sandanski and FC Kleve now being joined by a training match against an army XI.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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