Boss happy as Skegness Town grow into friendlies
Joint Skegness Town boss Chris Rawlinson is encouraged by how his new-look side are growing into their pre-season games and improving match by match.
The opening 6-0 defeat by Rugby Town was followed by a midweek 1-0 loss to Holbeach United and then a 1-1 draw with Step 4 Corby Town.
“Pre-season is not about results, it's about performances – and the two performances last week were really good,” said Rawlinson.
“We weren't great against Rugby and, as we said, we probably shouldn't have played it with so many players missing.
“The performance against Holbeach was a million times better. We had three or four gilt-edged chances in the first half and missed a penalty.
“So we should probably have been comfortably ahead at that point. Fair play to Holbeach, they kept working at it, though we were on top.
“They then got a set play goal which can happen in football if you don't take your chances.
“We then became a bit erratic in trying to chase the game, which is something new sides do with lots of new players.
“We need to work on having patience when trying to get back into the game and to not move away from the way we want to play.
“Saturday was Corby's first game, which you could probably tell as they had two sides.
“But if you ever wanted a reaction from the previous game we got that on Saturday and we actually looked like a good side.
“We defended so well and limited their chances, even though they had more of the ball than us.
“And we looked a threat on the counter, even when we were still short of two or three lads.”
A Macauley Parker goal direct from a corner earned the Lilywhites the draw with Corby Town in Saturday's friendly.
The sides were evenly matched in the opening encounters with both teams taking their chances to advance forward.
Corby tested Skegness Town's goalkeeper Jake Lovelace from the off, but Skegness did not hold back, Declan Johnson pairing up with Town's manager Gary King to test Corby's keeper numerous times.
Corby took the lead when the ball fell to Rueben Marshall who, seeing his opportunity, placed the ball to Lovelace's left-hand side
However, this lead did not last long as Skegness captain Parker set himself for an inswinging corner, only for it to be curled perfectly enough for the Corby keeper to be unable to get anything on it and Skegness were level.
Corby come back out with a different 11 for the second half and, despite both teams pushing forward and carving out chances, neither team managed to capitalise on them.