Waiting nearly over as Gosport Borough prepare for first competitive fixture in seven months with Poole Town curtain-raiser

It's sure to be a fixture eagerly anticipated by the Boro squad, who last played a competitive match on October 31.

The coronavirus pandemic blighted Gale's first season as Gosport boss last term, as he oversaw just seven league fixtures.

A shortened 2020-21 campaign, along with a pre-season in which Gale has taken a number of positives from, has only heightened optimism ahead of his second season in charge at Privett Park.

And now the Boro boss is hoping his squad can translate that by landing an opening-day victory when Poole come to town on Saturday.

Gale said: ‘It’s exciting, for me, I said to the coaching staff earlier this week, ‘the day you don’t become excited by a season, it’s time to give it up.’

‘The excitement and the buzz of looking forward to Saturday you want to get off to a good start, like everyone does, not everyone wins or gets the result they want in that first game.

‘But we feel that we’ve prepared the team, maybe it’s gone better than we thought for some things, ultimately, it’s been a tough time for everyone and it’s going to be good to get back and have a proper game of football which means something.’

Gale admitted Gosport have been handed a tough start with successive away fixtures at Walton Casuals (August 17) and Weston-super-Mare (August 21) following the home Poole opener this weekend.

But the Boro boss says his squad will not be looking any further ahead than their tricky season opener against the Dolphins.

Gale said: ‘You want to get off to a great start, everyone does, you’re at home against probably one of the favourites in the league - Poole are always there or thereabouts.

‘They’ve kept the majority of their squad, they’ve had that continuity, which is something we’re striving to get to that Gosport haven’t had so it’s important that we do start well.

‘It’s not a disaster if you don’t start as well as you want, I don’t look at that, we want to start and have a real good start.

‘We’ve got a tough start, we’re at home to Poole then away to Walton and Weston-super-Mare, two of those three teams are fancied in the league and Walton is never an easy place to go.

‘We’re concentrating on Poole, one at a time, and the important thing is we start the season well and we get a positive result against Poole, which will be a tough fixture.’

Gale had been hopeful of pulling off deals for up to five new additions prior to the Poole clash, including securing the arrivals of former Pompey midfielder Harvey Rew and Aldershot goalkeeper Ryan Hall on a season-long loan.

However, it appears any transfer business is not likely to take place until next week.