By Andrew McDonnell (@AndrewSJourno)
Morpeth Town have announced a six-fixture pre-season schedule, which begins with a trip up to Scotland to play Premiership side Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
The fixture with Killie is set to take place on Saturday 9 July at their 17,000-seater stadium, and Morpeth manager Nicky Gray spoke of how the fixture came about.
“I got a phone call from Lee Clark asking if we want to play them the week before their season is due to start, that is a great achievement to start with,” he said.
“I think its an accolade, with him saying that, we’re on the map. It is our first friendly, but we have six training sessions before hand.
“The first friendly will be difficult. We are playing at their home pitch, a new 17,000 seater stadium and a 3G pitch will be great and then we will see where we are then.”
Opening pre-season with a team as big as Lee Clark’s side shows how far the Highwaymen have come in recent seasons, and a two-day trip back up to Scotland follows the next weekend.
Hawick Royal Albert, of the Lowland Football League, play host to Morpeth on Friday 15 July before they travel to Netherdale the day after to play Gala Fairydean Rovers.
Gray, who spoke in the Town Hall following the FA Vase victory parade on Fair Day, spoke about the trip, but also revealed that the club will be going over to Qatar at the beginning of 2017.
“We have the weekend after away in Scotland, which will be good for camaraderie, and we have a trip to Qatar in January/February time,” he said.
“We are looking to sort that out in September with the sponsorship deal that we are getting from there, which is really good as well.
“We thought about doing it in the summer, but with people having holidays, we thought we’d go after Christmas, get ourselves there, train hard, play games and look forward to the second half of the season, which will be tough.
“But, that will put us in good stead because the weather is normally bad here at that time.”
On Tuesday 19 July Morpeth travel to play New Fordley, before they close their pre-season off with a game against Walker Central on Wednesday 27 June and then Willington two days later.
Captain Keith Graydon believes pre-season is all about getting players’ fitness levels up, but also about getting team morale high going into the new season.
He said: “We like the trip up to Scotland, we went there last year. We had two nights up there and we had a bonding team night out, which is good when you sign players in the summer.
“It is good to get all the lads mixing together and have a beer and get the team morale going. We have got a great atmosphere between all the lads and hopefully that will kick on again this season.
“Its just about getting the fitness levels up, keeping away from injuries and the games do matter, but you need to get the minutes under your belt.
“The results I’m not too bothered about, it is just about getting the lads through 90 minutes getting our fitness up for the first game of the season so we can kick on.”
Feature image: kilmarnockfc.co.uk
