Last Friday we travelled across to Roda JC Kerkrade to train and listen to their academy director talk to about the club’s focus on developing their own players.
He (Roland Vroomans) introduced himself telling us who he played for and also where he has previously been the head of an academy. It was interesting when he talked about his time in Russia and how he tried to change the philosophy of how they did things but struggled because of the club’s culture.
We finished off with a slide show showing the structure of the academy and the future plans for building a new complex which will house the academy and local community.
Saturday brought with it our second game on tour against De Graafschap.
Playing in the scorching early afternoon heat did not help the tempo of the game but we were glad of water breaks which came into play throughout the match. We started much better than our opponents playing in their blue and white hooped kit and Rhys Jenkinson gave us an early lead.
Yet despite controlling the first half we once again conceded on the stroke of half-time as our hosts equalised from a set piece. We started the second half on the front foot and got our just deserves, though James King’s goal, our second of the game did have a touch of fortune about it with the ball rebounding off him and into the back of the net.
Thankfully we maintained our momentum and added three more goals with Callum Chippendale and Joe Brennan (twice) getting on the score sheet. From the match we headed to our new hotel in Delden and had some time to settle in before bed and a trip to Amsterdam the following day.
