Worksop Town coach delighted with attitude

The Tigers were given a month of rest after a ‘pre-pre-season’ period to get the squad back together after the hiatus from football due to the pandemic.

Baxendale explained how those who decided to continue training once a week have helped themselves get a ‘head start’ to the beginning of pre-season.

“It is the off-season so there are no points to be played for, but we do these sessions with an end goal in sight and ours is to be successful,” said Baxendale.

“We now have a lot of lads with that winning mentality, and you have to do the extra yards and see yourself as a high-level player to be here and I think it is showing right now.

“They are coming in and it is their own time, and it is a particular time of the season where we are not under contract or their registrations are not confirmed yet, so the fact that these lads are coming off their own back and doing this you think, ‘I’ll give these lads all the time for what they want during the season.’

“You’re there for them because when the hard work comes then you know that they are going to be there.

“It is a head start for us as other teams may be sitting at home not doing anything.

"But that is not what we are about, we are here to work and to succeed.”

Baxendale also explained some of the areas that have been worked on during these sessions.

The midfielder continued: “It has been all high-intensity stuff and it has all been football related with a little bit of fitness to keep their legs up, but also to get that sharpness up so that they can hit the ground running.

“We have had a lot of attackers in, so we have been doing some finishing work; we are built around scoring goals, so we have worked on some crossing and some shooting.

“This is stuff that we are going to be building towards next season, so it’s good to get used to that early doors with those patterns.

“It’s going to be a tough pre-season for them but if you want to be successful, you must have that mentality right from day one.”