Youngster happy with pre-season opener
City midfielder Jake Gosling was pleased with performance that the Grecians managed to put together to earn a 0-0 draw against Queens Park Rangers, in their first friendly fixture of the pre-season calendar.
The 19-year-old was voted as the sponsors’ man of the match for a bright first-half performance in the City team, and he was happy to have started pre-season in a positive fashion against some international-quality footballers and to get the legs back up to speed after a summer away from the pitch. He was replaced at half-time as part of a switcheroo to the entire outfield team.
“It was a good way to start off our pre-season,” said Gosling. “I think a lot of people would have probably thought that QPR would come down and smash us. It was good for our fitness, and nice to have a good performance as well.
“It’s weird, because you stay up on a Saturday night to watch Match of the Day and watch these boys play, so it’s nice to play against them. But to be honest, that’s the sort of level I want to be at, so to do that I’ve got to get used to playing against players like them and keep progressing.”
The focus of the game was never going to be results-orientated, and he revealed that the main target was to get a feel of playing together again – which he felt they did very well as part of an ultimately satisfying evening in front of a 2,327-strong crowd.
“We realised QPR would have a lot of the ball so we set out to have a good shape and express ourselves,” continued Jake.
“I had a few chances that I probably could have scored or done better with, but I was pretty pleased with my performance. Our team in the first half were brilliant, and from what I saw of the second half the boys worked hard and were brilliant as well.”
“It’s always nice to have the fans here too – we’re going to need them this season. It was just a really enjoyable game.”