A View from the Club: An interview with Birchy ahead of tonight’s European fixture
Co-manager David Birch has spoken ahead of tonight’s fixture against Oslo FC in the first leg of the Fenix Trophy quarterfinals. His key message to the fans is to “Just enjoy the game” — as “it’s not often that non-league clubs like Avro get opportunities to play against teams like this and in tournaments like this” — recognising that fans will be making the trip over to Oslo next week which could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Birchy and Mike Norton’s side put in a strong performance in front of the Avro faithful with a 3-1 win against Clitheroe on Saturday. However, Birchy recognised that it hasn’t all been plain sailing up to this point:
“We’re in a really difficult league this season. So that brings its own pressures so the Fenix Trophy gives us a bit of a distraction from that and yeah, the lads are looking forward to it.”
But what can’t go unnoticed is that the co-manager feels that despite the injuries, new players have come in, performed well and put in as much of a shift as those players who are missing. He emphasised that the squad is good enough and took note of the players signed in February.
“The new lads that have come in: Sheriff (Nije) and Malakai (McKenzie) and Brandon (Barker) have given us a bit of a kick as well, give us a bit of a boost, so hopefully we can put in a similar type performance tomorrow at high work rate high intensity and create lots of chances which is what we’ve been doing!”
February signing, Brandon Barker has had plenty of that European experience, including playing against Manchester United in the Europa League a couple of seasons ago.
“Brandon’s come in, Brandon’s played at the very top level of football, so you know, his experience alone will help the younger lads.”
Birchy made it very clear that this isn’t about individual players, but a fantastic opportunity for all involved.
“It’s a cracking occasion for some of the players you know the younger ones, you know, it’s a brilliant opportunity to go play against foreign players and go abroad and play against foreign players which we do next week.”
“This is just experiences that these lads will take away in future life.”
“They’ll have a look back when they stop playing football and say I went and played abroad and that’s what it’s about. It’s all about the opportunity to play and experience different types and styles of football.”
Director and long-term fan, Mark Hutton, couldn’t hide his excitement for tonight’s European fixture under the Vestacare lights.
“I think it’s great obviously for the local community that we’ve got that they’ve got a step four side on the on the doorstep and not only that, we’re bringing European teams into our area.”
“It can only benefit us in terms of exposure. It’s great for our sponsors. It’s great for the name of the club.”
“People who maybe haven’t heard of us before, will hear of us now because of the exposure in the Fenix Trophy. And obviously the games are streamed online, so you’ve got that to further your audience as well, so yeah, all good in that respect.”
Mark said that he didn’t know much about FC Oslo however, hopefully Avro can do enough over the two games to take us to the next round and potentially all the way to the final in Italy!
Stan Ashcroft
(Club Journalist and Programme Editor)
