Dan Dawson eyes culture change at Market Drayton Town

New manager Dawson has been leading pre-season training for a number of weeks with his new-look squad.

A first scheduled friendly at City of Stoke was postponed last Saturday and Dawson oversaw his first warm-up game as Greenfields boss in a match against a Town legends side on Tuesday night.

It has been a miserable few years for the club, who only survived a third straight relegation with a reprieve from the North West Counties First Division South last term. Dawson, appointed after an impressive Staffordshire County season with champions Redgate Clayton, expects a change of mentality.

Dawson said: “I’ve been coaching and managing in the area for some time and have lived in the area my whole life, I’ve always been aware of Market Drayton Town and the size of the club isn’t lost on me.

“It’s a big club in a big town that should be the thriving hub of the community, really. It has been in the past and a few poor seasons have led to that dropping off.

“We want to bring that feelgood factor back. What brings that back? Having a local feel and winning games. That’s the first thing to change, a winning culture. We worked really hard to do it at Redgate and we will work hard to do it here.

“The team lost 17 straight games and that kind of (losing) culture seeps in, where we’re all a little lapse, whereas we need to be competitive in everything we do, running, challenging, to the first friendlies.

“Settling for losing is not tolerated. I’m a big believer that you don’t win or lose, it’s win and learn. I can accept losing games if we learn from it and it doesn’t happen again, but I hate losing games and it happens again and again. That’s what we’ve got to eradicate.

“Our first mission is to start well, start as we mean to go on. I’m not deluded to think we will win every game but we will approach every game with it in mind.”

Tuesday’s friendly against club legends ended 2-1 to Dawson’s men through goals from new recruits Sam Finney and Harry Baggaley. Former defender Paul McMullen netted for the legends in front of a crowd of 150.