Birthday boy brace for Bradders
By Matt Johnson
An elated Tom Bradshaw spoke exclusively to ShrewsWeb after netting an impressive brace against Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad to kick-off his 21st birthday celebrations in style.
Latching onto Aaron Wildig’s route one ball, Bradshaw steamed through one-one-one before coolly slotting home for his first before and instinctive first-time finish gave him his second following a neat cut-back from Paul Parry.
“I’ve never waivered on my confidence,” said Bradshaw.
“Regardless of what people say like ‘it’s been 18 months since you got a goal’ or whatever, it’s never affected me in terms of my confidence. Every time I go out there I believe I can score and I’ll go into the season with great confidence, the same that I’ve shown during pre-season.
“The first goal was horrible because when you’ve got that much time, every single possible scenario goes through your head. But in the end, the keeper has just gone a bit too far to one side and left a massive gap so I just stuck it there. Paz did well on the second one to get to the by-line and cut it back so I’ve hit it first time and it’s gone into the far corner so I was over the moon.”
Town won the game 3-2 to round off an impressive week of pre-season action and Bradshaw revealed how testing themselves against tough opposition has benefited the match sharpness levels.
“To play a team of the calibre of Man City is great, regardless of if they are U21’s or a youth team, they are always going to be good because it’s a good setup.
“It was good for us to show that we can pass it and we can play and getting some more goals on the board and of course to get the win.”
“I’ve always said you can only get so much match fitness from running around a field and running up hills and stuff. You’ve got to get your match fitness from playing games, so for me personally to get two lots of 90 minutes this week has done me the world of good.”
With just a week until the big kick-off against MK Dons, Bradshaw admitted that both he and the team are raring to go, citing the dressing room spirit as a key factor.
“This has been the most exited I’ve been for a season for a while. I feel as a team that we’ve got the right mentality and the vibe in the dressing room is good, we’re all just excited to get the season underway.
“MK Dons have always been a big Club, we did well against them last season but they’re a very good team so we know it’s going to be a tough ask, but if we play as well as we have been doing then hopefully we’ll get a win.”
Snap up your tickets here for the campaign’s curtain raiser with MK Dons on Saturday 3rd August, 3pm k/o.