MANAGER Carl Adams says he has been left pleased by pre-season preparations so far, as Rugby Town won their second warm-up game against Coventry City under-23’s on Tuesday.
The victory, courtesy of a Charlie Evans brace, comes on the back of a 3-0 opening pre-season defeat to Northern Premier League Division One East side Sutton Coldfield Town on Saturday.
Adams believes that the opening results of pre-season should not be looked into too much, regardless of winning or losing the game.
“That’s been two decent work-outs against good calibre opposition, but for me pre-season is all about getting minutes under the belt and the results aren’t really the thing focus on,” he said.
“Just as we didn’t get carried away with last Saturday’s defeat, we won’t do either with the win [over Coventry City U23’s], but I am proud of how the lads played and they really did bust a gut for me.”
The Valley boss now hopes to continue the work done so far in the remaining friendly games against Evesham United and Bedworth United, before the season gets underway against Cogenhoe United.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to integrate five or six new players into last season’s squad, but it’s going okay at the moment and when we have played our strongest line-up – or as near as we have to it – I think we have done well,” said Adams.
“We’ve got two more games against higher level opposition to come over the next few days and hopefully then we’ll be ready for the main business at the beginning of August.”
A strike either side of half-time from Evans handed Rugby their first victory of pre-season at Butlin Road against a Sky Blues side featuring experienced first-team player Maxime Biamou.
Evans found the bottom corner with a well-taken finish when meeting a ball from Kieran Fitzgerald, before slamming a shot into the roof of the net via Jamal Clarke’s flick on at a corner kick to double the lead.
In Saturday’s 3-0 loss, a goalless first-half preceded a two-goal salvo from Reece Leek in the space of two minutes, with Max Timms finishing off the scoring for the Royals.
Valley head to Evesham tonight (Thursday, 7.45pm), before hosting Bedworth at Butlin Road on Saturday (3pm) ahead of the season kick-off against Cogenhoe on Saturday August 3.
Rugby Town face an away trip to promoted side Anstey Nomads on Tuesday August 6, followed by a trip to Sporting Khalsa in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup (August 10).
Other notable fixtures for the season ahead includes the Boxing Day derby at Butlin Road against neighbours Lutterworth Town, with the two sides meeting at Hall Park on Easter Monday, while Rugby conclude their season at Rothwell Corinthians on April 25.
