Assistant Manager enjoying life at Gills...
John Schofield is expecting a tough challenge when York visit MEMS Priestfield tomorrow.
The visitors are in 14th place in the league table having been promoted from the Conference last season, and Schofield says the players should expect a difficult encounter from a side who play good football.
He said: “York got promoted last year and 90% of their squad is still the team that were winning games week in, week out last year. They have a great manager in Millsy [Gary Mills] who loves to play the game and wants them to play that way so it should be a good encounter.
“They have had some good results this year; they have got a lot of experienced players. I don’t always subscribe to this `they came up last year so they might not be this or that. `
“You only have to look at the teams in our league, everyone is beating everybody else. That tells you that there are a lot of good players, teams and managers out there and part of our philosophy is to be consistent throughout games and throughout the season.
“The teams who are consistent throughout the individual games and the season will be at the right end of the table and that’s what we have to aim for.”
One player who is likely to see some action during the course of the afternoon is Cody McDonald who signed on loan from Coventry on Friday afternoon, and Schofield says the striker has settled in well.
He said: “He mixes well with the lads which is very important and anyone that comes in has to fit in to our environment. We’ve got a set of lads that are working hard supervised and unsupervised to prolong their careers and be the best they can be.
“He looks sharp, he hasn’t been playing matches for Coventry so he probably won’t be up to full speed but he’s looked bright and his eye for goal has been there for all to see.”
Finally John commented on how much he has enjoyed his time at the club up to this point and thanked the players for their continued determination to improve.
He said: “It’s been fantastic, we came together the day before pre-season which has been well documented and it’s been full steam ahead ever since. To be honest for the staff when there have been a couple of games it has been a chance for us to recharge but things couldn’t have gone any better.
“We’ve had great support from the fans, everyone at the football club has been welcoming, the Chairman has been superb in helping us to re-shuffle the squad and add players to it.
“In and around the club as well as the squad, players have brought in to everything we have done which is a massive thing. It’s easy having plans and processes on how you achieve your goals but to actually come to a football club which really wants to embrace that vision that you have is fantastic.”