Second year scholar Luke Lloyd came out of last weekend’s Raydale Cup tournament with a particularly big smile on his face having netted an impressive second half hat-trick to help his team to secure a cup winning 5-0 victory over Workington in the competition final.
"The tournament was good because it was our first few games since we got back together after the summer break,” he said. “I thought we did well as a team.
“Obviously I got my goals and that’s always brilliant. It felt good to get the hat-trick because they were three different types offinish. I always enjoy scoring because I feel like that’s what I’m in the team to do.
“The way I see it is that if I get a goal then it’s brilliant, so to get three in one game is a massive bonus. The fact that it happened in the final of a cup competition made it really good. We spoke about it before the competition started and we all said that we wanted to do it properly and get to the final if we could.
“Hopefully winning it will give us confidence and we can push on through pre-season as we get ready for our league fixtures. We’ve got games against Newcastle and Celtic to look forward to as well in the next few weeks and I know that will bring our standard right up.”
We’ve had a few weeks off through the summer but we’re all back, working hard and enjoying it ...
On pre-season so far, he said: “It’s been good to be back at it. We’ve had a few weeks off through the summer but we’re all back, working hard and enjoying it.
“It’s always hard for a while but you know you’ve got to put the effort in if you want to get to the next level.”
Regular watchers of our under-18 side will have noticed this week that some serious haircuts are now on show, with Lee Ashton, Kieron Olsen and Luke Taylor in particular having lost their locks in favour of the United States Marine Corp look.
When asked what had been going on within the camp, Lloyd said: “I think they’re all just trying to look more like me!”
He could well be right.
