Players feel heat as Cobblers back to work
The hottest day of the year so far welcomed Northampton Town's players back to pre-season training yesterday.
In temperatures touching 30C, the Cobblers squad were put through a double session of running in the morning and afternoon under the watchful eye of manager Stuart Gray, who has already promised his squad will this season be one of the fittest around.
First up for the Cobblers players yesterday were 1,000 metre 'horseshoe' runs at Abington Park, although striker Adebayo Akinfenwa was excused after one shift of running.
He instead put his surgery-ravaged legs through a workout on a bicycle – a sensible precaution for a player with his injury record.
Pre-season is never a barrel of laughs for a professional footballer, but it is something all players know they have to go through to set themselves up for the nine-month marathon ahead.
New signing Dean Beckwith accepts it is a necessary hardship, and admitted: "It's a fresh start for me at a new club so I don't know what the training's going to be like.
"I've heard a few of the lads talking and I've heard it's going to be quite tough, but you expect that in pre-season.
"I've done seven or eight pre-seasons now, so I know what it's about.
"You have to keep yourself fit in your off-time, but pre-season is all about getting fit - and doing it on the hottest day of the year as well!
"So that's nice."
All the Town squad looked in good shape as they got to work yesterday, and Beckwith says the days of footballers turning up for pre-season training massively overweight following a summer binge of booze and burgers are long gone.
"You might put on 2lb or 3lb here and there, but it's not hard to lose that in the first week or two weeks," said the big defender.
"It is a lot more professional now and everybody looks after themselves a lot more."
Town's first team squad were all present for the first day of training, along with Paul Rodgers and Liam Dolman who are trying to win new contracts after being invited to pre-season.
There were also a couple of other unnamed trialists being put through their paces, with others expected to join in over the coming weeks as Gray tries to finalise his squad for the new campaign which kicks off in 38 days' time against Macclesfied at Sixfields!
Email to a friend
Print this page- Northampton company faces multi-million-pound damages claim over “toxic” Chinese sofas
- BREAKING NEWS: Tributes paid to Niamh Curry as brave five-year-old loses battle against cancer
- BREAKING NEWS: Pensioner dies after collision at Northampton shopping centre
- Man tied to tree and beaten on Northampton Racecourse
- BREAKING NEWS: Seven-year-old boy dies following house fire in Northamptonshire
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Saints’ stadium plans get support as long as traffic issues solved
- Eastern European pupils helping school standards across Northampton
- Northampton Town: Boothroyd ‘It’s all about stability’
- Northampton benefits advice agency reports surge in people losing entitlements
- Northampton company faces multi-million-pound damages claim over “toxic” Chinese sofas
- Northampton Saints: Aussie international Cameron signs on at Gardens
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Social housing tenants blamed for crime wave across Northampton housing estate
- Behind The Headlines: Crisis - What crisis this winter?
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
