Bristol Futsal are looking to bridge the gap to league leaders Reading Royals this weekend as they head to playoff hopefuls Northampton Lions, who currently sit in fourth.
A win for Bristol would see them go level on points a the top of the league, but manager Liam Andrews says it will be far from a routine win for his side. He said: “Northampton will be a tasty fixture… we have the quality to win the game but it will take a great session on Friday and a good attitude on Sunday.”
Bristol’s only loss of the season came against Reading and it was the response to that loss that’s really galvanised their season to push for a title charge.
In the resultant training sessions, Andrews focused on new attacking patterns to unlock defenses; backheels to retain possession and move more players higher up the pitch were refined in training. This tactical change has seen thrash Rushmoor 11-5 and cruise past Aylesbury to 8-6 winners.
Andrews also spoke about the affects of COVID on the state of futsal. He said that “many teams have folded, with more kids losing patience for the return of futsal and joining a football club instead.”
Futsal has a massive influence in developing technical players for the both the top level of the game and also professional players in football, Wolves’ Max Kilman being the prime example.
When his former England futsal team lost its funding over a year ago, there was outrage across the game. And it appears the game is still in desperate need of investment.
“More funding needs to be injected into futsal to help the sport bounce back for sure,” Andrews claimed.
But for now Andrew’s focus is firmly on climbing to joint top of the table this Sunday
