Town spent last week in the sunny climes of Portugal as they stepped up their preparations for the 2017/18 Sky Bet League Two campaign. Ben Purkiss kept supporters up to date throughout the trip with an exclusive diary and, in his fourth and final entry, the defender provides the lowdown on a night of singing and reflects on the trip overall.
We had a tough session in the morning on Saturday, which was our last full day in Portugal, before having a tough tactical session which was followed by some running.
We worked on a few different shapes and formations and then we had a six-a-side competition in the evening, which was pretty competitive and it was an enjoyable session.
Everyone worked hard throughout the week and to finish the trip with a competition was enjoyable and it was very competitive.
People were tired so we had short games and there were a few goals flying in.
Once the football was finished, attentions soon turned to our final evening and the traditional initiation ceremony!
It was a pretty good standard of singing to be honest, I was sixth or seventh up and as I was watching I was becoming increasingly nervous because the lads before me were actually quite good.
It is always good fun and you never quite know what people are going to come out with. A few of the songs were quite safe, there were a few classics and James Brophy was booed off from start to finish!
On the whole it was good and everyone got up to sing, including the old lads because it is a new group at the club.
Robbo (Chris Robertson) decided to bring his Robbie Williams mask out, I’m not quite sure why but maybe he needed something to hide behind so he didn’t go red!
But he’s had quite a few moves over the past few years so it isn’t the first time he’s done it and it helped to liven up Robbie Williams’ Angels.
We then had Sunday to ourselves before heading home later in the evening and it gave me chance to reflect on the trip as a whole.
It was tough, it was hard work but it was enjoyable as well and we were able to combine the physical work along with fine tuning things from a footballing aspect.
We had a really good period to cram in plenty of sessions and we also got the opportunity to chat to people. We were eating together three, four times a day, we had free time in-between sessions where you got to sit with each other and find out a bit more about each other.
The songs were also a decent way of not taking yourself too seriously and having a bit of a laugh.
"It is always good fun and you never quite know what people are going to come out with. A few of the songs were quite safe, there were a few classics and James Brophy was booed off from start to finish!"
It helps with the team bonding, that togetherness and hopefully that will stand us in good stead going forward.
So, all I’ve got left to do now is to thank you all for reading over the last week or so – I hope you’ve enjoyed these entries.
See you at Carlisle.
Catch up on Ben’s previous three diary entries here:
