Crawley Town’s Callum Preston happy to make debut
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The 19-year-old former Birmingham City Academy player made a good impression to Reds fans in pre-season games.
But since Freddie Woodman joined the club on loan from Newcastle United, Preston has had to watch every game from the bench.
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Hide AdHe finally got his chance to impress due to Woodman being away on international duty for England Under-19s.
The former Wales Under-19s player was not to blame for any of Southend’s goals, one of which took a nasty deflection and the others were unstoppable finishes.
Preston said: “It was nice to get back on the pitch to be fair. I enjoyed a good pre-season and have been chomping at the bit to play.
“I knew the situation as soon as I came here so it’s great to get 90 minutes under my belt ready for Saturday.”
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Hide AdPreston has kept himself fit and ready to play despite the lack of opportunity created through Crawley not having a reserve team.
Preston said: “All you can do is to train hard, make sure I’m sharp and keep my standards high so when I am needed, it doesn’t matter when it is, that I am mentally ready to play.
“Overall I thought I did well although I thought my kicking dropped off a bit in the second half, maybe because it is so long since I’d played before.
“We just need to cut out silly mistakes out I think we’ll be OK this season.
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Hide Ad“I think we have enough on the pitch and enough in the squad to stay in this division.
“There’s competition there in every position which is what a team needs and I think the Gaffer is building a squad and you can see the foundations there now and hopefully we can now kick on in the season.
“You only get experience by playing games. It’s a young team but there are enough good, senior players to keep us in the division.
“Players like Ash (Jon Ashton) and Sonny (Bradley), Walts (Simon Walton) who have been around and have enough experience and they can help you through the game.”
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