Barber gets ready to cut down his old pal Sneddon
MIKE Barber is looking forward to locking horns with former teammate Scott Sneddon as his Clifton side open their National 2 West campaign at home to Loughborough Students.
Barber and Sneddon played together for four years at Cardiff Met University from 2004-2008 – and even lived together in their final year – but the pair face off in opposing dugouts on Saturday.
Clifton, who embark on their 150th anniversary campaign, finished third last season in National 2 South and were the league’s top points scorers with 1,181 points accumulated from just 30 games.
Despite being tipped as one of the frontrunners for this year’s title, Barber is cautious of their opening day encounter.
He said: “I know Scott really well, so they’ll be an element of his style on the way Loughborough will play. They’ll be fit and super athletes who train all day every day, so we’re expecting a tough game.
“They’ll be good up front, they’ll play with tempo and try to keep the ball alive. We’ll be looking to assert our physical dominance on them quite early but also, we don’t want to play basketball with them.
“The quality of BUCS these days means that those boys can compete at pretty much any level from Championship downwards, so we’ve got to be switched on.”
Barber says the environment at Clifton is incredibly positive but admits he has a selection headache due to their now embarrassment of riches in squad depth.
“The hard thing about this year is that we’ve got 30 boys that can play first team, which is really good but it’s becoming a bit of a headache now narrowing down squads to a starting 15 on Thursdays,” he explained. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m a semi-pro teacher and a full-time rugby coach, not the other way round.
“It’s a really good environment here. We’ve spent three to four years building a club mentality that, to be honest, Clifton has never had. It’s always been a players’ club which has just aimed to survive but we’ve kept a real core of boys together for the last four years.
“Last year we didn’t deserve to go up, Redruth and Esher were better sides than us but there’s a real buzz around the place now.”
Clifton have put on an emphasis on re-signing experienced players with Max Murphy re-joining the club from Berkeley University in California and experienced National League heads Dave Wheeler and Danny Openshaw also returning. Centre Will Owen has come in from Coventry.
Barber said: “We’ve strengthened in some key areas and the new boys have settled in well. What we’ve noticed is that boys integrate quite easily, and we’ve got boys now who have re-signed for us who have come in back into the fold and are some old heads we’ve maybe missed in the last two years.
“We haven’t gone mad, we haven’t signed a ton of players we’ve just recruited in the areas we needed. It’s a nice mix of boys now with a balance of experience and quality in youth.”
Barber believes the inaugural National 2 West season will be an ultracompetitive one and has outlined seven teams who have the potential of lifting the trophy.
“Leicester Lions will be right up there, alongside Redruth and us but I don't think you can discount Loughborough or Exeter,” he predicted. “Look at how Exeter stormed through the league below last year, they’re going to be strong.
“There’s some teams that are going to provide real battles. Newport Salop are an unknown but have recruited quite well over the summer and Hinckley turned over Esher and Redruth and are so difficult to beat at home.
“Anyone out of those seven could be within a shout but you never know someone might come completely out of left field and storm through. We’re under no illusions, it was a tough league last year and it’s going to be the same this year.”