Chris Knott spoke to the local media ahead of Saturday's National League North fixture away at Darlington.
"It's a nice long trip," said the Leamington first team coach. "We're looking forward to it though. They've had a challenging start and we've certainly had that too with two of last season's top eight but there are far and away more positives than negatives going into the Bank Holiday games. I think we're building some momentum and the inexperience and vulnerabilities we might have with lads stepping up levels, we've also got lots of ex-pros. We can catch teams out.
"We've got a different dynamic going forward, so Darlington's one to look forward to with the first long haul of the season and then we come back on Monday for a bit of a local derby at home."
In Leamington's 2-2 draw with Alfreton Town on Tuesday night, Paul Holleran made four changes to his previously unchanged starting lineup and there has been lots of talk regarding the strength in depth of the Brakes side this season.
Knott agreed, saying "I'm into my fourth season at the club now, and the squad depth is the strongest we've had. We've got at least eighteen players this season already who all, including the likes of Ant who's stepped up from two levels below and Teddy coming out of academy football and lots of others, who can easily step into a starting position straight away. When they are used, they will have earnt that spot - they're doing great work at the moment but we've also had momentum in our starters.
"I think having that depth is key and how we use it as a management team setup, obviously keeping everyone happy will be difficult, but certainly it's nice to see we made four changes the other night and still looked strong and confident. We'll need to make changes this weekend, of course, and as a management team we've got no qualms with that and no question marks on anyone's ability - it's just finding the right shape of the team. The other night we had to deal with long balls for 90 minutes with strong set plays, more physicality and this weekend Darlington will want to actually play football and we'll need legs to go up against them and then Rushall will be the same on Monday."
Attendances this season have been impressive, with the Alfreton crowd double the number that saw Leamington beat Berkhamsted last season in their first midweek fixture. A large part of the crowd on Tuesday night was made up of younger fans, and Knott - who is also Head of Football Development at Leamington - was delighted to see and hear the younger generation.
"It's massive. We've got a real pool of great youngsters who are starting to follow us. We're doing a lot of work in the community where we're getting ticket schemes out to our school partners and trying to build a fanbase to follow through. We're having a "fan for life" sort of motto. It's now brilliant to see them following us away as well as at home and last season, they got us over the line a number of times and we'll need them even more this season and hopefully across the season the crowds and number of youngsters builds and builds and we can get something on the pitch that they will look forward to coming and watching every week."
Photo: Chris Simpson
