MANAGER PREVIEW: Cleator Moor Celtic [H]

First-team manager Danny Grainger says Reds are ‘looking forward to being back home’ against Cleator Moor Celtic on Tuesday evening.

The match will welcome back not only the squad to Borough Park but also a maximum of 200 spectators.

As we near the end of pre-season, Grainger sat down following Saturday’s intense training session to discuss a range of topics but firstly. what he made of Alistair Morrison’s exercise.

“It’s a different environment, something to see how they react,” he explained.

“It’s easy when things are going your way, so it’s a case of what happens when things get really tough.

“Today, they stuck together as a team when they needed to.

“It’s something I’m a big believer in and today was a great day for it.”

Adding to a busy week, last Friday, Reds learned their fixture fate in the NPL North West Division.

Plans can now be put in place for the serious stuff and Grainger revealed how it’s helped preparations.

“I think we’re excited for it now,” he said.

“We’ve been given a target. Obviously, we had the FA Cup but we’re still unsure of our opponents so it gives us something to aim for with Pickering being the reverse of last season’s opener.”

As well at Tuesday’s game against our West Cumbrian neighbours, we’ll host Premier Division side Lancaster City on Saturday.

400 fans will hopefully be inside Borough Park and the boss acknowledge how both outings will compliment each other, saying: “They’ll be different tests.

“For the Cleator Moor game, we’ll probably rotate the squad a lot to give all of the lads 45 minutes each.

“For Saturday, we’ll start looking towards cutting the squad down a little bit and getting it to the way it’ll look before the first game of the season.”

Finally, with supporters soon returning to our home ground, Grainger expressed his delight at how things have shaped up there over the last few months.

“The work that’s been done this summer – not just on the pitch – has been great.

“The pitch itself in tremendous condition. The work of the volunteers, Dennis the groundsman and even Ruddy [Steven Rudd] himself is a credit to themselves.

“They’ve made it look great and we’re all looking forward to being back home.”

Kick-off on Tuesday is 19:30 and if you can’t make it to the match, you can follow the action via our social media platforms and our live scoreboard.