19/05/18
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon at Arbour Park Stadium, the Panjab FA warmed up for the forthcoming CONIFA Football World Cup, with a friendly against Jersey FA.
CONIFA (The Confederation of Independent Football Associations) is the football federation for all associations outside of FIFA, which operates on a non-profit making basis. The organisation was founded in 2013 and hosted its first World Cup in Sweden 12 months later.
The third edition of the competition takes place in London from 31 May through to 9 June and Panjab will play all of their Group D games at Arbour Park.
Ahead of Saturday’s warm-up game, I spoke to their Operations Director, Bobby Mudhar, to get his thoughts on the tournament. He began by explaining that;
“Two years ago we were runners-up after losing out on penalties, now I feel we have a team which has more experience and which is more highly thought of and I hope we can have some success this time around.”
“We are number one seeds for this tournament which obviously brings added pressure, but we have some good players who currently play in steps five and six and we’ve had some prestigious friendlies against both England “C” and Liverpool Under-23.”
I asked him if most of this year’s squad took part in that 2016 heartbreak and whether that experience would be important.
“A large section of that team did play in 2016 and they are the mainstay of the group. They now have two years more under their belts so we’re quietly confident.”
I then asked him what he thought of the stadium, which will be the organisations base for the group phase;
“I love it. I mean we’re here overlooking the pitch on a beautiful day and although it’s an artificial surface out there, I think the players will love playing on it.
“We’ve been made to feel really welcome by Kay and the volunteer staff and I think they have the right people in place here and I can’t wait for our fans to come and sample the atmosphere.”
On the subject of fans, I asked Bobby if he was confident that the group games would see a swell of support, he replied;
“I really am. We have a number of fan groups around the country and here in Slough, there is a big Punjabi community, a really diverse catchment area which I hope could be our twelfth man.
“What I would really like is to get the youngsters in here and if I can help Slough in that way, it would be fantastic.”
After an entertaining game which finished 1-1, I caught up with Head Coach Reuben Hazell, for his thoughts on their 90 minute work-out.
“We tried to work on a few things such as playing three at the back which didn’t work”, he stated, “I feel we did much better second-half reverting to a back four. To be honest, the first-half was one of our worst performances in recent times, but after the break I thought the lads reacted well.
“Towards the end, I thought there was only one team going to win it to be fair, so all in all, I give it six out of ten.”
When I asked him about the Arbour Park playing surface he stated that it was; “Absolutely brilliant. The surroundings here are excellent, great facilities and the pitch is better than any we played on in the last World Cup. As we play our group games here, we have no excuse for blaming the pitch.”
I asked the boss if being seeded number one in the 2018 tournament will put added pressure on the Panjab team. He replied; “For sure. I’ve been telling the lads that two years ago we were an unknown quantity and people underestimated us. Now that’s out of the window and other teams will see us a big scalp.”
Finally, did he know who is starting XI would be for the opening game against Kabylia on 31 May?
“I’d say at the moment I’ve got around seven or eight positions sorted, but I’ve told the players that there are still places up for grabs.”
Next I caught up with Mohammed Omar Riaz, Panjab’s attacking midfielder who currently plies his trade with Burnham and asked him what he thought of this afternoon’s game.
“That’s the third time we’ve played them and they’ve won one, we’ve won one and now today’s draw. We knew it would be physical so we had to try to match them.”
On his and the team’s form ahead of the tournament, he explained that; “Just like the rest of the squad, I’m working as hard as I can and I think we have enough talent to take us far in the competition. We just need to be more clinical in the final third.”
Panjab’s final warm-up game is against Dhaka Akadash R.C. which takes place on Sunday 27 May at Arbour Park, kick-off 19:30.
CONIFA (The Confederation of Independent Football Associations) is the football federation for all associations outside of FIFA, which operates on a non-profit making basis. The organisation was founded in 2013 and hosted its first World Cup in Sweden 12 months later.
The third edition of the competition takes place in London from 31 May through to 9 June and Panjab will play all of their Group D games at Arbour Park.
Ahead of Saturday’s warm-up game, I spoke to their Operations Director, Bobby Mudhar, to get his thoughts on the tournament. He began by explaining that;
“Two years ago we were runners-up after losing out on penalties, now I feel we have a team which has more experience and which is more highly thought of and I hope we can have some success this time around.”
“We are number one seeds for this tournament which obviously brings added pressure, but we have some good players who currently play in steps five and six and we’ve had some prestigious friendlies against both England “C” and Liverpool Under-23.”
I asked him if most of this year’s squad took part in that 2016 heartbreak and whether that experience would be important.
“A large section of that team did play in 2016 and they are the mainstay of the group. They now have two years more under their belts so we’re quietly confident.”
I then asked him what he thought of the stadium, which will be the organisations base for the group phase;
“I love it. I mean we’re here overlooking the pitch on a beautiful day and although it’s an artificial surface out there, I think the players will love playing on it.
“We’ve been made to feel really welcome by Kay and the volunteer staff and I think they have the right people in place here and I can’t wait for our fans to come and sample the atmosphere.”
On the subject of fans, I asked Bobby if he was confident that the group games would see a swell of support, he replied;
“I really am. We have a number of fan groups around the country and here in Slough, there is a big Punjabi community, a really diverse catchment area which I hope could be our twelfth man.
“What I would really like is to get the youngsters in here and if I can help Slough in that way, it would be fantastic.”
After an entertaining game which finished 1-1, I caught up with Head Coach Reuben Hazell, for his thoughts on their 90 minute work-out.
“We tried to work on a few things such as playing three at the back which didn’t work”, he stated, “I feel we did much better second-half reverting to a back four. To be honest, the first-half was one of our worst performances in recent times, but after the break I thought the lads reacted well.
“Towards the end, I thought there was only one team going to win it to be fair, so all in all, I give it six out of ten.”
When I asked him about the Arbour Park playing surface he stated that it was; “Absolutely brilliant. The surroundings here are excellent, great facilities and the pitch is better than any we played on in the last World Cup. As we play our group games here, we have no excuse for blaming the pitch.”
I asked the boss if being seeded number one in the 2018 tournament will put added pressure on the Panjab team. He replied; “For sure. I’ve been telling the lads that two years ago we were an unknown quantity and people underestimated us. Now that’s out of the window and other teams will see us a big scalp.”
Finally, did he know who is starting XI would be for the opening game against Kabylia on 31 May?
“I’d say at the moment I’ve got around seven or eight positions sorted, but I’ve told the players that there are still places up for grabs.”
Next I caught up with Mohammed Omar Riaz, Panjab’s attacking midfielder who currently plies his trade with Burnham and asked him what he thought of this afternoon’s game.
“That’s the third time we’ve played them and they’ve won one, we’ve won one and now today’s draw. We knew it would be physical so we had to try to match them.”
On his and the team’s form ahead of the tournament, he explained that; “Just like the rest of the squad, I’m working as hard as I can and I think we have enough talent to take us far in the competition. We just need to be more clinical in the final third.”
Panjab’s final warm-up game is against Dhaka Akadash R.C. which takes place on Sunday 27 May at Arbour Park, kick-off 19:30.
Copyright 2024 Slough Town F.C. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.sloughtownfc.net as the source.