Melbourne City FC challenges Bury FC in the Club’s first match of its pre-season camp in Manchester on Tuesday evening.
Melbourne City FC challenges Bury FC in the Club-s first match of its pre-season camp in Manchester on Tuesday evening.
The match, which will be played behind closed doors, will be the first of three matches that Melbourne City FC will play in the greater Manchester region.
The team arrived in Manchester last Tuesday and have since completed a week of training at Manchester City-s Carrington Training Facility.
Head Coach John van-t Schip said he was pleased with the team-s progress, but was looking forward to Tuesday-s hit-out where he aims to gauge that progress in a match situation.
“The priority is for the players to start gelling as a team,” van-t Schip said.
“We have a chance to see the team play against opposition from a different county – a different level, which is very interesting for us. Like any match in the pre-season, we can see how the team is working and how we are developing.
“We will also be trialling some players and are interested to see how they will go.”
Van-t Schip also said the focus was on implementing training scenarios from the past week – and more broadly the pre-season, which commenced in June – into a match situation.
“During the match they [the players] can start playing the way we have been working at training, and implement some of the practice into the game situation,” van’t Schip said.
With new signing Damien Duff likely to play for Melbourne City FC, the match will be a demonstration of the latest iteration of the 2014/15 squad; a team undergoing extensive training at the Carrington facility.
Van’t Schip was forthcoming on his impression of the training pitches and said he had been happy with a “solid” pre-season to date.
“The facilities are always perfect for training. We are rotating through 5 or 6 pitches and everything is very good here. They are so well maintained and so well organised.”
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Match Details Tuesday 15 July 2014 Melbourne City FC vs. Bury FC Carrington Training Centre [Behind Closed Doors]
Next Match Saturday 19 July 2014 Oldham Athletic vs. Melbourne City FC Admission is by payment at the turnstiles on the day. Adult seats £10 (approx $18), Concessions £5 (approx $9) Kick-Off: 3PM
