Tool up

Hello hello welcome to 2012, the year of the Olympics, the last year of time according to the Mayans and, more importantly, the year that Sale continue to dominate! The Christmas break is coming to an end and I hope a thorough break was enjoyed by all. The team certainly enjoyed the 1st team Xmas do, some of us more than others (guilty as charged!). For anyone wondering yes I do remember some of it, which personally I think is my greatest achievement of the season so far.

With all that resting and feasting and relaxing behind us though it is now time to get back to business. On the agenda at the moment for all us is burning off those mince pies. We don't hit the league for another week and training doesn't start until Tuesday but not to worry about our sharpness as we have scheduled ourselves a friendly in order to shake off the cobwebs and get back into the swing of things. Hopefully the wind will calm down before we head up to Golbourne on Saturday to face their 1st team. Hailing from div 6 south they are placed one league below us but, like us, currently sit atop of the table (but only with a 4 point gap, must try harder!) and so I'm sure they'll be a team wanting to hit the ground running too, and get one over on a team higher up the tree than them.

It's a good test for us. Not just so we can get the fat out of our legs after the break but also because facing a competitive team looking to get one over on a higher team is going to be a recurring feature for the rest of the season I believe. The fact is we're just over halfway to our goal but we're not there yet, and now every team knows what they're dealing with. They're all out to get us, even if they don't necessarily aspire to promotion itself. For those who doubt it, I can recall the feeling of determination when we faced the league leaders last season knowing we couldn't win the league, and the elation after we beat them. As the season wears on and you begin to look more like settling into mid-table mediocrity the games like that are your big last chance to take a quality moment out of  the season. We're going to face teams each week fighting for things or just trying to prove a point, and we're going to have to beat them all.

I don't believe we can do it, I know we can as a law of nature. If we maintain our level then we achieve our goal, I know, that's not good enough for me either we should always be improving. I want to see a double figure scoreline before the end of the season. For now though, the pressure is off this weekend. Let's go out and fight, try to win and most importantly get back into our stride. I know many of the lads are watering chomping at the bit with excitement to get out on the pitch, I'm no exception. Let's tool up and take it to the pitch!