Corby boss Attenborough excited for his Steel Park debut

With maintenance work taking place on the Steel Park pitch this summer, the Steelmen have played all their pre-season friendlies away from home or behind closed doors.

But new boss Attenborough will be in the home dugout for the first time this weekend as Corby take on their National League North neighbours in what is the final outing for both clubs before the real business gets under way.

The Steelmen kick-off their season with an Emirates FA Cup extra preliminary round home clash with AFC Mansfield next Saturday (August 6).

And, having used pre-season to give as many players minutes as possible so far, there will be a change of approach for Attenborough against the Poppies.

“It’s a local derby and hopefully there will be a good crowd in,” the Steelmen boss said.

“We have had a long pre-season and every game has been away with the pitch being reseeded.

“So it will be nice to be at home. We can get a feel for the place and get the supporters behind us.

“We are playing a Step 2 team but it should be a good test for both sides because they are in a similar position to us in the sense that they have had to rebuild pretty much from scratch.

“Every game will feel like they are finding out more about the players and the shape they want to play and we are the same.

“We are still feeling our way, we are looking at everything.

“We will go out and be as strong as we can. We will still have three or four missing because of injuries and unavailability but we will play it more like a league game.

“There won’t be loads of changes at half-time. I want to prepare as best we can for the following week.”

Corby’s most recent outings saw them beaten 1-0 at United Counties League side Quorn last Saturday before they went down 3-0 at Southern League Premier Central outfit Coalville Town on Tuesday night.

Attenborough conceded the performance at Quorn was disappointing but, despite the midweek scoreline, he was pleased with the reaction of his squad at Coalville.

The Quorn game was probably our most disappointing one of pre-season so far, we just weren’t at the races in the first half,” Attenborough said.

“We had words at half-time, we tweaked loads of things and then within 10 minutes of the second half starting we have made seven changes.

“It’s always a little bit disjointed but sometimes I don’t mind the odd off performance in pre-season because it gives us a chance to get into the lads a little bit.

“After that game, we made it clear what we wanted from them and, at Coalville, the scoreline didn’t reflect the game.

“It was tight until the last 10 minutes and they have scored two goals but we were far more competitive.

“Coalville are a very good side, who move the ball quickly and they are a settled team.

“I thought we matched them and we hit the post twice. It’s little things, little details and when you play teams from higher up, you get punished.

“I certainly wasn’t disheartened by Tuesday night. If anything I was more encouraged by what I saw.”