The 2015-2016 Pre-season Review from guest blogger, Roger Butcher

The England under 21s are out, the England women are out – that means that the domestic football season is about to start.  Pre-season training was traditionally the most hated part of the year as the players were put through military type training to rid them of their summer excesses. It is slightly different these days as more and more players seem to keep themselves in decent shape over the summer, and pre season involves a lot more ball work than in previous eras.

Tooting are no different as new boss Frank Wilson has begun his tenure with some early training sessions with a few new faces as well as a healthy number of returnees from last season. Isthmian League teams probably have a much higher turnover of players than a typical professional team over the summer break, and even moreso when there is a new manager at the helm. It’s not unusual for a manager to leave a team in our league and take most of the players with him, so it’s a credit to the new man that so many of last season’s team are back for more.
 

Key amongst the returning players is talisman and top scorer Dan Summers who will be hoping to crack the 30 goal mark again. Joining us for the first time is highly rated young defender, Darryl Siaw, who played for Farnborough last season. Although a number of players have committed themselves to the club for the upcoming season, at our level there is often a last minute change of heart in the week before the first league game where you find that a player who has featured in all the pre season friendlies appears with another team, and vice versa, we may see a player in the first match of the season that we haven’t seen before. Nevertheless, Frank Wilson will be confident that he has assembled a team that will be more than competitive this season.
 

Our pre-season schedule starts very soon with a lot of home friendlies. We will be playing some games on the main pitch and some on the 3G pitch at the back of the stadium complex. Admission for the games on the 3G surface is free, although there will be a bucket collection during the games for any voluntary contributions to raise money for new stewarding equipment.

Pre Season Friendlies:

• Staines Town, Tue 7th July, 3G Pitch, 8:00pm kick off
• Merstham, Sat 18th July, 3G Pitch, 12 noon kick off
• Crystal Palace XI, Fri 24th July, Main Pitch, 7:00pm kick off
• Wimbledon XI, Sun 26th July, 3G Pitch, 12 noon kick off
• Fulham XI, Tue 28th July, Main Pitch, 7:30pm kick off
• Farnborough, Sat 1st August, Main Pitch, 3:00pm kick off

Come along – the 280 bus stops just outside the ground!

Keep up to date with the goings on at www.tmu-fc.co.uk.