Brakes Press Officer Paul Edwards and Head of Media Max Passantino took time out of photographing on media evening to have a chat with Brakes boss Paul Holleran ahead of this Saturday's game against Long Eaton United.
Hollers looked back on pre-season, saying "I think most people will be generally pleased with pre season, it’s a process. From our point of view we’ve been able to regroup, introduce some different people, a new system. From that point of view it’s been a good six week period for us, pre season doesn’t count for a lot - I mean what can you do in pre season? It’s all just preparation of how we want to play to get what we want to achieve.
"Everybody is the same with pre-season, everyone just wants to start, we’ve put the work in and some years we’ve started well and some years not bur the Leicester and Rushall performances here were strong and we need to bring that into Saturday as if we want to be in the areas of the league where we want to be, performances at Leamington and getting points at home are going to be absolutely vital for us.”
Brakes host Long Eaton United this weekend in their opening Pitching In Southern League Premier Division Central game and the Leamington gaffer was full of praise for this weekend's opponents, noting "Looking in from the outside, there’s a lot of momentum there because of the successive promotions and we’ve watched them a couple of times. They’re a very efficient team who’ve got a good mixture of players both experienced and youth. So looking in from the outside, they’ve been together a long time and had this journey together. If you can get that hard working team, togetherness and spirit in non league, it gets you a lot of points. They tick a lot of boxes.
“I know there’s been a little bit of upheaval this week and I don’t know a lot about it but it’s like any game - step 2 or 3 where the teams are equipped and organised. They’ve got players who can turn a game and score goals so we’ve got to make sure that we implement our game and make sure come Saturday 3pm we are ready to go full steam ahead and get three points.
It's always interesting heading into a new season, and Paul Holleran was next asked about targets. "We sometimes set realistic short term targets over a two or three week period with a little bonus - in terms of a night out or something like that," he said. "Little achievable targets along the way of the season are more practical. I’ve always been a massive believer of not talking and just doing it, and that’s what this group have got to do.
“We’ve licked our wounds, regrouped and are ready to put in some encouraging performances and see where they take us.”
It's an action packed first month of the season with Leamington facing six sides, and Paul Holleran made sure to note that just because his Leamington side had played 8 seasons all together in the National League North they did not have a right to come in and underestimate the new lower league.
He said "I think the first month gives you a taste of the league. Coalville have been if not the best team for the last three years and whether it’s been a couple of goals, a couple of points they’ve just missed out.
“When you look at the games, there’s three local ones, a couple of tough away ones - one on 4G, promoted sides. Every month you look at the fixtures and it’s a tough league.
“I know there’s a feeling that we’ve been around the National League for a long time, I don’t want to keep going back to it but the Southern League is still really competitive. I honestly think for the club, supporters, staff and players it’ll be a good league for us - something different and we’re going to have to be at our best to do well like we have in the past, but I think everyone’s looking forward to it.”
It's typical to end a chat ahead of a game with Hollers on the fans, who have turned out in their numbers this pre-season - making noise at every single game. On our supporters, he added "You’ve only got to look at the last game of the season and with the exception of two or three games they’ve turned up in numbers and seen hard working performances. They know they’re not standing watching players who are cheating them or not putting the leg work in.
“If you’re a player, what do supporters fall in love in? A player who works extremely hard, cares about the football club and works hard every week. I remember Steve Clarridge at the Blues - those kind of players.
“We’ve got a lot of good, honest players. Whether at times we were good enough, but their application and effort last season was non questionable. It was the quality of the league that was too much for us at times and that’s happens.
“The most important thing is your home form, it’s what the majority of fans see. What we’ve got to do with tinkering with the system is to make us more creative, hopefully score more goals with more goal mouth action and that’s worked in pre-season. We’ve just got to bring that into the league and see where that takes us.
“Probably expecting us to be a little more open at times but I’m hopeful, at the end of the day when you’re getting large numbers turn up to watch us, we want them to be entertained and as well as being supportive to their club they want to see some excitement and that’s what we’re going to try to do and certainly pre-season we’ve looked more a goal threat and scored more goals.
“There’s always a blip along the way and that happens in pre-season when people fall into the pre-season mode but we’re doing things properly. There’s enough experience in the side, and the beauty of it is that there’s a couple of younger players who have stepped up from lower league football and I think we’re all excited to see how they do. Then you’ve got the tried and trusted that are here, and your Tyrone and Landers around the pitch who will look to add more up top of the pitch.”
