It is understandable that having lost a large number of senior players from last year’s  squad,  the men’s football Blues have been looking to bond as a new team and as a new unit in the first few weeks of term.  To that end, their training schedule has been focused around ‘playing’ sessions rather than fitness, as the squad aim to get used to playing together.

Yet this has been at the expense of specific stamina training work-outs.  With only one training session dedicated to a circuits set at Fenners, and only one given to fitness and ball work-outs, new captain James Day and the Blues management were largely relying on players to improve their own playing stamina. Having opted for five to six practices they seem to have been hoping that fitness will come through playing rather than through specific work outs.

It has, however, been a slightly inauspicious start for the University squad.  In their first friendly fixture against Nottingham, the Blues lost 4-2 and the Falcons 4-1.  The Blues’ lack of fitness really began to tell midway through the second half when they were not able to cope with the stronger and better drilled opposition midfield.

It remains to be seen whether Day and the management will regret not putting more fitness sessions into the opening week training schedule, for whilst it is beneficial to have the team playing together, in the early season, the inability to run for 90 minutes could cause them problems.

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