Ramblers boss Henderson happy with pre-season progress

Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson thinks that his side are in a good way, as they continue preparations for the start of the 2016 League of Ireland season.

Speaking to Extratime.ie after Ramblers progressed to the last four of the Munster Senior Cup, Henderson gave his views on his side’s pre-season so far and how they might do in the First Division this season.

“Overall it was a great day for us. We are very happy because we are after signing a lot of players. That was an opportunity to see a lot of them play for the first time together. Due to the weather, we have not been able to get out to the pitch and work on our shape, so the lads had to figure the shape out themselves on the pitch.

“We came up against a good College Corinthians side, who were organized and had a good game plan. It was great for us because we needed the extra game, we needed to play on grass. Deep down, I was sort of happy we went to extra time, because it gave us 20 extra minutes to improve out match fitness.

“We did well to get the ball down and play in some extremely difficult conditions. Mylod was very good on the left wing, Evan Galvin was very comfortable on the ball. Our back four looked solid, we were looking for them to make the right decisions. Hunty (Paul Hunt) looked very accomplished in goal, not only in the shootout but throughout the game as well.

“It was our first competitive game, so we were delighted with that. The whole thing for us at the moment is about trying to get fellas some game time. Some of our lads are actually a little bit ahead of where we want them to be, because we want them peaking for the start of the season. Other lads need more minutes on the pitch and we want to get everyone up to the same level.

“First and foremost, even though it’s a cliche, we want to try and win more games than we lose. That would be our initial target. We aim to take things one game at a time.

“We had a good look at players here today and that was good from my point of view. We have had another eleven we could have picked today, but we didn’t. We are actually very excited about the squad we have here at the moment.  But it is all about trying to get the right mix between trying to win a battle and winning a football match.

"That team today showed that there is a couple of fighters out there and we are going to need that in the First Division. So we are just going to try and enjoy the league basically and try and play a particular brand of football. We got the ball down and played today, so we will try to get better and better at that," said the Ramblers boss.