Barrett sets sights on a top-four finish for 1st XI
NEWBURY and Thatcham Hockey Club begin their pre-season preparations on Saturday as the men’s first and second teams travel to Gloucester – who are coached by former player Mike Salmon.
Nick Barrett, Newbury’s head coach and second team captain, believes his sides are capable of a “top-four finish”.
“We’re looking forward to our first pre-season fixtures this weekend – the men’s performance squad are travelling to Gloucester,” Barrett said.
“One of our former players is now coaching Gloucester City and we’re looking forward to seeing him.
“It’s nice to go somewhere different to where we’d play league fixtures as well, it’s going to be good.
“We’ve had a lot of change recently. A number of people have moved on and it’s time to allow some of the people who have been playing in the development teams to step up.
“It’s always difficult to know how we’re going to get on, we don’t know what all the other teams are doing.
“We’ll set out to play in the right way every game, to try and win every game, and we’ll see where we end up.
“I try not to set targets particularly, but we’re keen for a top four finish.
“We’ll start to understand the mechanics of that after four or five games.
“I’ll be coaching and playing – some people might think that’s too much of me – but
does give us some balance between teams. We can help players progress.
“We have a new director of hockey who we’ve worked with to create a set of principles that we’ve chosen to play by. We’re going to ask people to judge themselves by these principles, we think then we’ll play well.
“It’s not all about results, we’re keen to drive player progression and development.
“These guys are people and we want them to improve as people.
“We’re focused on what we’re doing in and out of possession, how we’ll use the ball effectively.
“We want to be aggressive out of possession, we want to look to press the ball and control space.
“We’re working hard, we’re doing what we can and we think good things will follow.”