Joel Byrom column: ‘Ben Nugent’s goal ended up as 50 yards, but it wasn’t as good as mine against Crawley’

This week saw the team head over to Jersey on our pre-season trip.

I have to admit, I was a little bit sceptical before we set off as I was seeing other teams in our league fly off to places like Portugal and Spain, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

The trip was well organised with a lovely hotel right on the Marina and the training facilities proved better than expected.

Pre-season trips like this normally scare the life out of me. I really don't enjoy the management staff having full control over me 24 hours a day.

At previous clubs I have been on 6am runs, 5am pool sessions and up to four sessions a day, so the 8am 5km morning runs didn't feel too bad even though that was the first of three daily sessions for us.

We trained hard over there but it was more football-based which the lads really enjoyed.

It was also a chance for us to get closer as a group with a few bonding sessions over there.

The new lads had to get up and sing in the restaurant on Saturday night as an initiation which is always a good laugh.

They all gave it a good go but not many of them knew the lyrics which disappointed me.

On Saturday we took part in Jersey Bulls' first ever game, winning 4-3 on a difficult surface with some tired legs after a tough week.

The highlight was Ben Nugent scoring a wonder goal from 35 yards, which ended up being 50 yards by the end of Saturday night, although I had to remind him it wasn't as far out as mine at Crawley in the Conference winning season.

I just want to end this column by congratulating the club on the appointments of Alex Revell and Ronnie Henry into the Academy.

Both men are fantastic professionals who know the club inside out.

I have no doubt they will continue this club's tradition of unearthing young talent like Ben Wilmot and Arthur Iontton, who have both made the jump into first-team football in recent seasons.