Lordswood will be looking to improve on their SCEFL season from last year as Nicky Southall embarks on his first full season in charge at Martyn Grove and he has been talking with KSN… 

“The first game of the season, you are like a kid in a sweet shop!” the Lords boss told us, adding, “That’s what I’ve always lived for – you have a tough pre-season as a player and coming into the first game of the season – the first game of any season – is really exciting times and for this Club we are hopefully moving in the right direction!”  

“We all want good starts and when you have something to play for – the three points – it’s totally different to what has gone previously, as there’s “nothing” to play for except organisational skills and using games for getting fit.” 

Southall saw his side fall away from Play Off contention last season and is focused that that will not happen again.

“You want to get off to a good start at any level,” he told us as his side prepares for the trip to Corinthian on Saturday on the opening day of the season.

“We have got to have some positivity going into the first game – we know it will not be easy as Corinthian made the Play Offs last year and are a good well-established team at this level.”

“We go there full of confidence, and I am just really glad that pre-season is out of the way now for us – it’s all done and dusted, and the countdown now is really looking at three o’clock on Saturday.” 

“We had a great run after Christmas last year and you always want to maintain that sort of momentum, but failed at the end.”

“I was looking at our run-in last year and it was tough as compared to this year when I think we have a tough start.”

“That said, all games are tough at this level – you cannot take any game for granted! If you take your eye off the ball, you will come unstuck, so we want a good start on Saturday as then we have the FA Cup (at home to Erith & Belvedere) the week after and we want to try and get through to the next round of that.”