VIEW FROM THE PRESS BOX

CRAIG BIDDLESTONE

his starting line-up will look like come the 5th August, but one thing I do know is that Grant has assembled a very exciting squad of players with experience at this level and above, and young hungry players that look more than capable of doing a job.

Well, here we are, the start of the 6th season as Ossett United!

This is my supporters head talking now, and I’ll be honest, after the high’s of the first season with the playoffs and the County Cup win, I was sort of hoping we would at least be a step higher by now, but, we all know the struggles financially off the pitch, as well as Covid, that have hit us hard, and I for one hope we’ve put all that behind us now as we look to push onwards and upwards.

It’s been a mixed bag on the pitch this pre-season, as inevitably Grant and his management team have brought in a whole host of new players - a lot of which were thankfully sorted early - and there were positive performances against the likes of Horbury Town, Armthorpe, Worksop and Hemsworth, though not so much against Goole and Garforth. I’ll use that age old statement though that pre-season is about performances, fitness levels and giving the manager an idea of what

The most important thing for me today though is being back ‘home’. It seems an age ago since the final whistle blew at home to Grantham Town at the end of April, and this has been a strange preseason as we’ve normally had at least one or two home friendlies by now, but with the changing room extension and the pitch work ongoing it’s not been possible, and although today is a friendly I’m still looking forward to getting back behind the mic and bellowing out those immortal words, “This is the World Famous Ingfield…..!”

Today of course is the first of many games coming up at Ingfield, after today it’s 1874 Northwich in the FA Cup - that’s next Saturday (5th August), and then the following day it’s a charity match between Ossett United’s BTEC team and the Ossett United Supporters Club - and whilst my playing days ended a long, long time ago I will be back on the mic for that one too, if only to add a bit of in to proceedings - special walk out music already set up and ready to go.

The match is to raise funds for DAZLa local dance and health charity,