Varsity is just around the corner with the University of Gloucestershire set to take on the University of Worcester on Wednesday 20th March.
Ahead of the match, ParkLifeSport spoke to club captain Dan Jones about their BUCS season, training leading up to varsity, and the impact of Buster Davies as first team manager.
When asked about the team’s season so far, Jones explained:
“We’ve been competing in the BUCS; the ones have done really well and came close to winning the title but were unfortunate to lose out to SGS in the game last week.
“We have got the last game of the season next week for the ones, the twos, and our thirds.”
Jones went on to talk about the team’s preparation for the big event too:
“They’ve been training hard, we’ve done two to three weeks of training now with a 25-man squad, and we’ve cut down to 18 now for the matchday squad.
“It’s been good, we’ve been doing two or three sessions a week, trying to work on fitness especially across the year as that’s been one thing that’s let us down, so we’ve been working hard across training to improve our fitness and movement on the ball as well.
“I’m not going to give away too much in terms of tactics in case they’re listening, but we’ve been working hard on the style of play we want to have, and going into the game we’re confident that will bring us the win at some point.
The first-team started the season without a manager in charge after Tom Spiers’ departure, but since joining as his replacement Buster Davies has made an impact:
“Buster [Davies] was a late arrival to us, he joined midway through the season, but it’s clear that the standard has been upped a lot through the month to two months he’s been here.
“A lot of the boys are trying to impress obviously the starting varsity spots are open to everyone, and nobody’s spot’s guaranteed so the last few weeks have seen a big increase in training in terms of the fitness he’s done, and the standard he’s set as well coming in.
“From the first session he was working us hard and I think after the first session a few of us were blowing!
“But, he’s definitely improved the standard and he’s brought this style of play that he wants.”
Wrapping up the interview, Jones gave us his score prediction for the match:
“I’m going to stick confident with Glos and we’ll go with a 3-1 win.”
You can buy tickets for the fixture via this link: https://uogsu.native.fm/event/varsity-worcester-arena-day-3/220369?fbclid=PAAaZ4o1moGy6s7l2xZ6H9SZtLK8at2UqbuNkMnofFhkwO-7LuvZAPvKCvy-g_aem_AdZu1kJbLRP-FHWeYZZ9j-xwOuMWEFr-b8zL6ckeij3CD8ul64y9HPFfg_y9RURPfUc