After yesterdays derby day draw with New Durham AFC, we spoke with the gaffer Wayne Gredziak to get his thoughts on the game and look ahead to next weekends match against Ferryhill Athletic.
Hi Wayne, thanks for chatting with us. We can never judge too much off of one game, but what is your assessment of yesterdays/Saturdays match?
Yesterdays game was always going to be a high tempo game, with the players on both teams eager to impress with it being the first game of the season. I think to be fair we controlled the first half and New Durham would have had no complaints if they were six nil down.
It was that cliche of a tale of two halves, with City dominating the first half and could’ve been 3/4 goals up. Was it a mix of happiness and frustration for you? Happy that we had so many opportunities and showed real attacking impetuous and frustration because we just couldn’t put them away.
I felt that yesterdays game was a tale of two halves through our own fault of discipline. We played 55 mins with 10 men and we are a young team, but players need to learn that they can’t react like that, as that killed us. I had to change formation three times during the game, but I do truly believe if we had 11 players on the pitch the result would have be different.
Are you happy with where the squad is at the moment? Naturally we do have a couple out with injuries and work commitments will always play a part, but do you feel we have the skill, depth, fitness and commitment of players for over the season? You’ve certainly added some very experienced heads to a good young team.
The squad has picked up several injuries through pre season and some are more serious than others
Dimitri Kehi - Knee - Needs operation
Connor Box - ACL
Nathan smith - Groin
Brett chapman - Ankle
Saud Alanizy - Ankle
We may need to add to these injuries, but will assess the situation over the next coming weeks.
It’s feels almost morbid to mention, but City are already only one point off their total points tally from last season (2). What are your goals for this year?
I haven’t set a points tally, more of a goal we want to get promoted back to the Premier division which we are more than capable of. I never expected it to be easy, but we need to remain calm and disciplined in games for us to stand a chance of that.
Our next opponents Ferryhill Athletic got off to a flying start in their game at the weekend, beating Sunderland RCA reserves 8-1 in their opening match. What do you make of their side and what work will you be doing in preparation for this game?
They are a very good side and I know they have a budget and are paying their players. No team does that unless they have aspirations of promotion and from speaking to other managers, they are the team to beat and favourites to win the league.
We’re finally back home at Leyburn Grove on Saturday for a league game. Do you have a message for them?
We need as many of our supporters there on Saturday to be our twelfth man. I am hoping the Durham Ultras and loyal fans return for our first game of the 2023/24 season and we can reward them with an entertaining game against the league favourites and deliver three points.
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