Saturday took Chris Beech back to the place where it all started just over a year ago and it threw up a good opportunity to talk to him about the strides made through a 12-month period nobody could have predicted.
“We’ve moved on and I’m very proud of that,” he told us. “It comes from a lot of hard work from a lot of people, and it’s not just about me.
“The contracts David Holdsworth has done have been important, and we get support from Nigel [Clibbens] and the admin staff, from the girls, the media, the ground staff, everybody.
“We’re all in it together and I’m glad we’re all working so hard together on it as well. That gives us forward momentum as a club, and what happens from that point is that the boys understand what’s happening so they go out to represent the traits our supporters feel are important and that they live by.
“Our fans want to see an exciting team who create goals and chances. We’re trying our best to do that for them.”
“The progress we’ve made is definitely the product of everybody connected to this club,” he insisted. “For this season, the work started way back when 19 players left in the summer.
“It’s been a massive effort to get where we’ve got in six months, particularly when you throw the challenges of the coronavirus in there as well.
“I am really proud of everybody, and what we now have to do is take a bit of time to consider what it is that we’ve done together, then try and move forwards from the point we are. I’m very much looking forward to the future and, in the shorter-term, to what the Christmas period will bring us.
“We can look back at some great memories a year ago when we managed to beat Forest Green on that two-game hit to get to Cardiff, and Nathan Thomas got the first hat-trick of his career here.
“But it’s about moving forward now. Well done to Forest Green, they got the result this time, and that’s football for you. We’ll dress ourselves down now and get ready for Bolton on Boxing Day.”
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