The Spartans media team’s newest recruit Michael Bowers spoke to Tom Wade after the draw against EBAC Northern League side South Shields.
After coming from behind to lead, thanks to Stephen Turnbull’s first-half brace against his hometown club, the Spartans were held to a draw but it was a fiercely competitive match from both sides.
Manager Tom Wade feels what you get out of the game can be limited when experimenting with different players but still thinks the Spartans played well.
He said: “I thought we pretty well dominated for long periods. We struggled up top a bit but we know that we’d struggle there. We’ve got two or three missing up there and it’s a huge slot to fill. (But) we kept the ball well.
“Friendlies like this, you’re changing eight or nine players so you can only get so much out of the game. I thought first-half we did really well but the second-half was a bit disjointed.”
Wade also praises his side for coming from behind to get a result too as it would have easy been to collapse after conceding first.
He said: “Sometimes you’ve got so much of the ball, you get complacent on the ball. When you’re under pressure and you’re just keeping the ball for fun, it’s very hard to keep your concentration levels and you’ve got to have an end result.”
Wade also believes South Shields lad Turnbull would have liked scoring both goals against South Shields, for whom he is ‘very passionate’.
He added: “He’s very passionate for South Shields, it’s the place he loves. I thought he had a fantastic game. His second goal was unbelievable. He’s top draw, he’s the leader of the team. He’s a fantastic person and he is a Shields lad, he’s from Shields so I think he’ll be delighted to score two.”
Despite not winning the game, the gaffer’s main priority was fitness and he feels the team got a good workout this week.
Wade said: “It’s a great workout. It’s just fitness that’s all we wanted, get the fitness out of the lads. There was one or two tackles that went in which wasn’t nice but that’s how it is so overall it was a good workout.”
Although he admits the team hasn’t done well across a whole 90 minutes, Wade believes that’s not far around the corner and is happy with how his squad is doing as the anticipated first league game of the season is drawing closer.
Wade said on pre-season as a whole: “I think it’s went well. We’ve done well in sections of games, we haven’t done well over a full 90 minutes yet but that’ll come. At the start of the season, not many teams play for a full 90.
“We’ve got about 70 minutes of quality in our legs but we’ll be ok. I think we’re playing well, I think we’ve got a strong squad and it’s hard to pick an 11.”