University of Gloucestershire Men’s Football 1’s goalkeeper, Dan Smith has praised his side’s performances so far this campaign.
The team are off to a brilliant start, winning every match and not conceding a single goal.
“We had a really good preseason. We played the (UoG) 2’s to start with, and comfortably beat them 5-0. It meant we started off with a clean sheet and we were very clinical,” he said.
“We then progressed to play UDA at the TigerTurf Stadium, which was a mixture of the 1’s and 2’s. We played the first half and we won 1-0. The following week, before our season started, we won comfortably 2-0, so a really strong preseason and three clean sheets.”
He continued by discussing their opening two games in the BUCS league and Western Conference cup respectively, saying: “We played Bath 3’s away on a really tough, boggy pitch. We ended up coming out of that with a 3-0 win, a good clean sheet again but I didn’t have a lot to do. We were really clinical, under the cosh for a lot of the game but we defended well.
“Last Wednesday, we played Swansea 2’s at the Swansea City Training Ground and won 4-0, and it was a further clean sheet against a really strong side so we were happy to knock them out of the cup.”
Keeping five clean sheets out of five is a big achievement for the team, but for goalkeeper Smith in particular, it’s a massive statement in how solid himself and the defence have been.
“I can take part of the credit for that but my back four has been really, really impressive,” the 21-year-old stated.
“I haven’t had a lot to do, we haven’t given away many chances to the opposition. I’ve faced a maximum of two or three shots a game and mostly had to deal with crosses and distribution.
“I’ve not had to make any elegant or flashy camera saves but I’ve had to do a lot of sweeping around the back and dictating the defence, but a lot of credit has to go to my defence for that.”
Coming off of victory in the cup, it can sometimes be easy to get carried away with the idea of going on a run, but Smith emphasised not looking too far ahead, saying: “I think we’re just trying to take it one game at a time.
“The cup has got the league above in it as well so we know if we do progress we are going to face a lot better opposition than us. It’s great if we can go on and progress in that but I think the league at the moment is our priority and trying to keep our clean sheets and our momentum rolling.”
A clash with Winchester is up next for the UoG 1’s, and despite the opposition being winless in the game, Smith has not played down the threat they can bring.
“It’s a game of football at the end of the day, and whoever turns up best on the day will win the game no matter what your previous records are.”
He continued to emphasise that it won’t be an easy task, saying: “They’ll be going into that game hungry for their first win of the season, we don’t want to turn up overconfident. Our aim is to do our job, get the three points, keep another clean sheet and then get on the bus and be on our way home.”
In terms of longer-term goals, the main one is simple: “For the team it’s just to win the league. I think we’ve got a really strong squad this year, so winning the league is our main priority.
“For me personally, it’s just any way I can help towards that team goal, keeping clean sheets, anything I can do to help achieve that. As long as we win the league, I’m happy.”
