Thursday came and it was fitness test time. Johnny put me through my paces in the morning with several running drills that included so many twists and turns that I think I could double up as Patrick Swayze now! It had to be done though to really put my ankle to the test. It was all good and Johnny cleared me to train in the afternoon with Dave. While everyone else did jobs and got ready to go back to the digs I went out with Dave and Loners, we were joined by the Bartons, Ciaron and Adam. Those two were there to put us under pressure while Dave knocked a ball in for either me or Loners to come and catch. It was really good; I love doing things like that because it’s very similar to match situations as Adam and Kee were putting in some strong challenges, which was great.
After that Loners went and Dave really put me through my paces with some hard drills, the lasagne I had eaten about 40 minutes previous was on the verge of coming up. Thankfully my stomach held strong and I managed to finish without throwing up. I stayed at the training ground as I was coaching for the centre of excellence keepers for the first time that night. This is something I’ve really been looking forward to since I started. I was taking part in these sessions on Thursday nights only a few short months ago, so it was good to see some of the other keepers again from younger age groups. It felt a bit weird trying to help them as I was training with them not so long ago, but it was really enjoyable. It was the younger keepers from 6-7 then the older ones from 7-8. After it had finished me and Thommo made our way to Sainsburys for some hot Roast Chicken. Lovely!
