Crucial time for Kilshaw’s side
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw has stressed the importance of the next couple of months as his side get well underway with their preseason preparations.
The Hornets players are back in training with the club as they get ready for the next Kingstone Press Championship campaign.
Kilshaw is glad to be back, and hopes that the players will go from strength to strength over the next few weeks.
“It doesn’t feel like we’ve had that much time off! It’s still been a busy period for coaches with recruitment and getting players fit for pre-season,” he said.
“Everybody is freshened up and back in good spirits, and now we have a big six weeks in front of us in this first phase of preseason.
“It’s a really important time for the group as we can get a lot of coaching into them, and work on systems and structures.
“Our focus will also be on discipline, and improving that on the field to get a resilient and tough team who can go the course of a 30 game season.
“These six weeks will fly by as we get the players mentally tough and physically fit to be comfortable with their roles and jobs throughout the season, whether that’s one position or two.”
Hornets have made a number of signings ahead of the new season, and Kilshaw is fairly pleased with the business that he has done recently.
“We would always like to bring a couple more players in, but all of the coaches in the league would say that,” he said.
“The restrictions we have budget wise means that it will always be tough, but that’s where our dual registration partnership comes into it and we’ll utilise that.
“We also need to rotate the squad a bit better this year to keep the guys fresh for the back end of the season.
“We’ll always be on the lookout for new players but I’m happy with the players we’ve brought in as it’s a good blend of experience at the Championship level and some young lads that have excitement and promise about them.
“There are some lads that are doing well in League One that we’ve signed too as they deserve a chance in the Championship, and apart from a couple that left, we have retained everybody we wanted to retain.”
Hornets were tipped by some to be relegated from the Championship last season, but they put in good performances over the course of the year to survive the drop.
Kilshaw is now hoping to build on that success, but insists they won’t be setting any targets just yet.
“As a group we’ll sit down in January after this first six weeks and then we’ll put our goals in place,” he said.
“The aim at the minute is just to improve in every session and get fitter in order make sure that we’re ready to go.
“There isn’t much focus on round one at the moment as we’re just taking it session by session, and the things we do early on in pre-season and along the way will help us make sure we’re ready to go.
“For now there won’t be too many specific goals in terms of the season, we just want to be better than last year.”