*** A WORD from the Dugout - With Ben Johnson ***

*** A Word from the Dugout with Ben Johnson ***

@thameunitedfc and www.thamefootball.co.uk would like to thank our coach Ben Johnson for the interview.

Ben is sponsored by @figaro’s barber in Thame.

*** QUESTION TIME ***

What are your thoughts on last Saturday’s game? Were there any positives?
BEN - ‘The conditions didn’t help, perhaps the boys watching the Arsenal game before kick off set the mood for the game ahead. From there we went out late for warm up and perhaps didn’t warm up properly. Like what we have found in previous weeks, if you don’t prepare you are not going to be at the standard you need to be at to compete against a team like AFC Dunstable. I thought we was unlucky, they were bigger and stronger on the day. They had a game plan, stuck to it and it worked well. We tried and tried but had no killer instinct going forward. Their 3 goals in my books were our mistakes. Positively it’s another 90 minutes under our belt and the fixtures around us went our way and stay in the playoffs position’.

2019 has been a difficult year for us with 1 win in the last 6 games, what needs to change?
BEN - ‘I think because of how well we done in 2018 it has put a lot on our shoulders and perhaps we are trying to live up to those standards. We haven’t been in this position in the league before and perhaps the burden has been a little big for us. We as a management team have told them to play with no pressure and as football guys it hasn’t gone our way. We know we have the lads in the changing room to turn it around, we just need to believe and push on and do it. Hopefully we can go on a run for rest of the season and get back to winning ways’.

What will the boys be working on this week in training?
BEN - ‘We are training twice, Tuesday was more about cardio and fitness such as runs and sprints. Like we have been trying to do the last few weeks which is to get the fun back into playing football. As it is never easy losing games week in week out.

Do we have any injury concerns or suspensions going into Saturday’s game V Corby Town?
BEN - ‘Obviously Westy didn’t start last week and he had a niggle in the warm up at Dunstable. So we felt it best not to risk it and he is having the week away. Other than that everyone is back fully fit’.

Corby Town are having a great season so far and have 61 points. What do you hope to see from the boys on Saturday? What do we need to do to get 3 points?
BEN - ‘Corby are a good setup, they have played at a much higher standard. We always knew coming into this season that Corby would be a team up there and a team to beat. We went over there early this season and won off a bad result. It was one of our best performances of the season so we know we can do it’.

Any final words for our fans and followers?
BEN - ‘It’s nice to get so much sponsorship in the club. We also now need bums on seats and people through the gate to experience what we are doing down here and what we are trying to do. People around the club will be very welcoming, so far this season we have had some great attendances but we want to up that a little bit’.