Daisy’s new backroom team ready for friendlies

Daisy Hill manager Lee Hill is preparing for the start of his side’s pre-season fixtures programme tonight after a busy few weeks recruiting a new backroom team and revamping the playing squad.

Dave Turner has joined the club as assistant manager and Joey Collins will be first-team coach.

Turner joins the club after spending last season at Radcliffe, and prior to that worked with Daisy boss Hill when they were both part of the management team at Clitheroe.

Collins is an UEFA A licenced coach with previous management and coaching experience in the Northern Premier League, most recently at Bamber Bridge, and Hill believes they will bring additional strengths to the club.

“It’s important to look at player recruitment but before that you need to look at staff first”, said Hill

“We lacked a bit of depth on the bench at times last season, so I spoke to Dave, who I have known a long time and worked with at Clitheroe and Radcliffe, and I know what he brings.

“He’s been the head of recruitment at few clubs and knows the game well, and we had a chat and he was keen to come on board.

“Joey was a manager of mine in the Army, and he is a top coach who will help develop players and bring in the style of play we are looking for.

“It’s important to have good people around you, and along with Jack Iley who is coming on board as an assistant coach, it’s a really solid management team”.

The new management team have already been at work bringing in new players to strengthen the squad, with Callum McHale, Luke Roscoe, Kaiden Barlow, Robbie Woolford and Ryan Lockett all joining the club in the past few weeks.

“In general, we have brought players in from higher levels”, said Hill.

“Dave Turner knows a lot of players from his past roles, and we spoke to a lot of lads.

“We worked out what we wanted to do and how we wanted to play and have brought players in who fit that mould.

“We’ve seen them bring quality in training already, and bringing five or six new faces in to ramp up training sessions has been a big boost for us”.

The squad will have their first run out tonight when Daisy host academy side PC39, comprising players from the Pascal Chimbonda Academy, at the Plumb Factory Stadium in the opening game of their pre-season schedule (7.45 pm).

“We have played them a couple of times over the years in friendly games, and we know what they will bring”, said Hill.

“They have a lot of young lads who are very energetic and very fit, and I thought it would be a great first game for us as it will test our lads physically and we’ll see where their fitness levels are.

“So it will be a good first test and a better option than playing a team who is maybe a couple of games into their pre-season programme.

“It’s just about getting out on the pitch, and getting fitness levels up. In the upcoming games we will start to refine what we do on the pitch a bit more, and look a little bit deeper into where we are up to”.

Daisy’s other pre-season fixtures are home clashes with Radcliffe next Monday, Welsh Alliance side Ruthin on Saturday, July 13 and a derby game with Atherton Collieries on Tuesday, July 16.

The pre-season schedule is completed with an away game at Elton Vale on Saturday, July 20, and a home tie in the Atherton Charity Cup against Atherton LR on Monday, July 22.

The North West Counties League season begins on Saturday, July 27, with Daisy facing a trip to face Holker Old Boys on the opening day.