Connor Smythe keen to use football break to improve

Connor Smythe is trying to use the break in football to improve as a player.

The Tigers – and many of the non-league sides from Step 3 and below – have not played a competitive fixture since October due to two national lockdowns and the threatening expungement of the campaign.

Smythe believes that players should turn the current time into a positive so that they can better themselves ready for when next season comes around.

He said: “Ultimately, as players, we have got to realise that there will be a time in the future that we go back to football and at this moment in time you have got to flip it on its head.

“Use it as a chance or an opportunity to better yourself and use this time to get better as a player to improve upon what you need to focus on so that you can come back in the best shape, and the best frame of mind possible to kick on and enjoy your football.

“You have just got to take individual responsibility for your fitness.

“For me, it’ll be a case of some longer runs and then finding a local pitch to go and do some individual training on with balls included that is specific to football, and once we are allowed to maybe meet up with other people, then it’ll be a case of who wants to come and do a little bit of training.”

Smythe also admitted that everyone’s attitude towards football will have taken a knock, especially during the latest lockdown.

“If I am being honest, everyone’s motivation is not as high as what it maybe was in the first lockdown, and it is clear to see that the general feeling is that it is a lot tougher,” Smythe continued.

“If you want to be successful, then you must find something inside that drives you, and that purpose and that motivation are what you have to keep using day-by-day from now until the situation goes back to when you can play or go back to training with your team.

“I suppose we have just got to carry on doing the best that we can in the circumstances that we are in.

“As I said, it is sort of thinking forward and thinking ‘what can I do to be the best player I can be’ when we do return to football.”