Galway United manager John Caulfield is ‘looking forward’ to Sunday’s first pre-season encounter against Finn Harps at Eamonn Deacy Park, kick off 2.30pm.
Busy preparing for the SSE Airtriciy League of Ireland first division opener against Shelbourne at the end of March, United have lined up four friendlies against top flight opposition.
“It is good to be playing Harps, we are back in training, and it was great to get back in, when you are in like that at the start the next thing you are looking at is can you play a match,” Caulfield says. “So we have the clearance to play a match, we are looking forward to it. We are just in our third week training, it is great we have a match at the end of the week.”
Caulfield is hugely excited about the enthusiasm of his squad which features 10 new signings. “The main thing on it is you are on the countdown,” Caulfield remarks about the start of the campaign edging closer.
“First of all you will look to give everyone a bit of game time which they are all looking forward to, you also want to show the work you've done in training regarding how things are shaping up, partnerships between different people. It allows for all of that which is good.
“Everyone is eager to play, I suppose when you have a new team too. We've done a lot of work, it is early days, you are seeing how lads are bedding in. During the game you'll want to see what you are trying to do - has that come across well?
“Have the players understood it and bought into it. From that point of view the enthusiasm and the way you are looking forward to seeing how they shape up and how they are doing, that is what we are looking at really.”
Ultimately Caulfield is adamant that a promising group is being stitched together. “You can see it, you go from the first week when guys are getting to know each other,” Caulfield comments.
“In training everyone is a little apprehensive because it is a new group. Then in the second week you have guys flying into tackles, the niceties are out of the way. It is about training hard and then you probably see there is a good feel to the squad.
“There is a bit of bonding going on between the lads, it is a competitive environment. It is about the group getting to know each other. Am I excited? I am, we have done a bit of work in training, you can see different partnerships and options, that there is competition for places.
“You want to get to the games to just see if the lots of stuff you do falls into place. It is still early days, but at the same time you want to see certain stuff that the lads will do at the weekend.
“Don't get me wrong, there is a long way to go, a lot of problems will show up. What you've worked on, though, you hope the lads will do it to see whether it comes off.”
