Striker Adam Roscrow became The New Saints’ record signing, completing a deal from League One side Wimbledon for an undisclosed fee last week.
The 25-year-old will make a return to the Cymru Premier 18 months after departing from Cardiff Metropolitan University to become a full-time professional at The Dons.
The Saints will hope the signing can push them over the line to retain the title, with Connah’s Quay Nomads breaking their eight-year winning streak last season.
Roscrow played 22 times for his previous club – 17 of which were appearances off the bench – netting twice, having dealt with multiple injury blows.
”It was great,” Roscrow claimed about his time at Cardiff Met, where he received a BSc in Sports Performance Analysis and am MSc in Sports Coaching and Pedagogy .
”Without being there, it definitely wouldn’t have given me the chance to further my career as I did. I think the quality of coaching you get there is probably better than you get at some professional clubs, so I certainly think that’s key to the successes we talked about.
”Christian [Edwards], not just him but the other staff as well, they would just drive the standards. There’s a lot of staff who have come from professional backgrounds as well so they know themselves what it takes to be successful and what it takes to get to that next level. I think having people like that coaching you and being part of the club, it drives the success as well.”
”At Met, I played with some good creative players like Eliot Evans, for example, would find you off the shoulder and he was more than capable of making those difficult passes when needed.”
”The professionalism and the attention to detail that went into everything was certainly a massive part of helping me get into the professional game.”
In his last season at Cyncoed Campus, he helped his side win the Nathaniel MG Cup as well as helping them qualify for the preliminary rounds of the Europa League.
”I think we were probably disappointed to have not achieved Europe earlier or maybe won a cup earlier than we did, but for it all to sort of come together and get two things in one season, I think just showed how far we had come as a club.”
His performances for Cardiff Met earned him two caps for Wales C, scoring an equaliser off the bench in a 2-2 draw at Salford City’s Peninsula Stadium.
‘’It was an unbelievable experience. I was fortunate enough to be involved in both Wales games. Especially the second time, I came off the bench and part of me felt that I probably had a point to prove as I was a bit disappointed not to start. To have come off the bench and score, to make a difference in that game was an unbelievable feeling.”
Unaware of interest from Wimbledon, Roscrow bagged 14 league goals for Cardiff Met in his final season.
‘’I was clueless actually. After I signed, I found out Nick Daws, who was head of recruitment at the time and now assistant manager, had seen me play at the Wales C game and I think it was from that he either kept tabs on me or sort of had heard about me before but I think that was probably one of the first times he saw me play.
”I was none the wiser and I think, at times, it’s probably better not knowing people are watching because it just allows to concentrate on the game at hand and not have to worry about those external factors.
”If you don’t have a good game, you might beat yourself up or if you don’t score and you know somebody’s there, you automatically think as a striker ‘they’re not going to think I’m any good because I didn’t score today’, where, probably most of the time, they’re not necessarily looking for goals – it’s the rest of the game, the full package that scouts and other managers are really looking for. It’s not necessarily just what you do on the ball, but what you do off it as well.”
Becoming a professional at Wimbledon meant a change in lifestyle for someone who had only known a way of juggling their studies with their football.
‘’Physically, it was a massive, massive difference. At Cardiff Met, we trained twice a week and then, obviously, to go to full time training, it just took it out on you physically. It wasn’t necessarily the training aspect of it, obviously the intensity was higher again, but it was more the recovery – it took a few months for my body to get used to recovering quicker and that would allow me to train at a good intensity for four to five days a week.
”When you train twice a week and you’ve got maybe three or four days between training and then a day between a game and then a few more days until you train again, that time allows you to recover.
Roscrow also noticed a difference in the quality of teammates and opposition.
”One of the most difficult things I noticed was physically and, as I’ve mentioned, the intensity of how training is was picked up a level, which you’d expect and the technical ability and quality of the players you’re playing with and the demands they put on you. You can’t get away with a misplaced pass or having a bad touch because either someone has a go at you or someone takes the ball off your toe, so you’ve really got to be on it.”
”I think at Wimbledon you probably get quality more consistently, but you’re also playing against defenders who are just as quick as you, stronger than you and are relatively intelligent and read the game well so it’s all well and good me making a run and someone finding me but I have to up my game. Can I be sharper to get in front of a defender? Obviously, the quality was a step above because that’s the level you’re going to.
”Those players may well find you with that defence-splitting pass but then you’ve still got to keep hold of the ball for example or get your shot off or score.”
Life at Wimbledon didn’t plan out quite as Roscrow would have imagined, with injuries tampering his playing time.
“I enjoyed it. I think it wasn’t necessarily the way I planned out in my head, especially after being injured in my first season for two months, coming back and getting re-injured in the same place and being out for another six to eight weeks.
”By the time I started to get into the swing of things, getting more game time, getting more confidence and used to the level. In that first season, I was getting closer to scoring and then obviously, Covid happened, so that kind of put a sharp end to that first season for me, so it was a really short season.
”Then, come lockdown, I just wanted to put myself physically in the best position I could to come back to pre-season and really kick on, because you’re obviously bound by contracts and I only had a year left on my contract, so I knew that it was make or break and I had to make an impact that I hadn’t been able to in the previous season.
”I started well in pre-season, came back probably the fittest I had ever been, playing well, scoring a couple of goals. For the last few months, I’ve just been disappointed to have not got more game time. I’ve had five minutes here and there, which, for a striker, doesn’t allow you to do much, so it’s been indifferent. I loved playing at that level, there was a great bunch of lads that I was with, but also frustrated that I didn’t get as much game time as I would have liked, but that’s part of football.
Roscrow is now looking forward to pastures new at record title winners TNS.
“I think you go into a team where their ambition, their aim and proven success is to win the league every year. For me, being in a team that’s going to be aiming to win that league and win multiple trophies a year, obviously off the back of that you get European football, which I missed out on with Cardiff Met through my own decision, but it’s something I’m yet to experience and want to experience and going to the best team in the league, hopefully that gives you the chance of playing Champions League football.
”It’s a massive draw going to a team that will be competing right at the top, but obviously their style of play, having played many games against them, it’s a polar opposite style to the sort of Wimbledon, but it’s a style of play that really suits my game.
“You see how many chances they have a game and it’s no surprise that there’s always a couple of TNS boys that are top goalscorers, so hopefully I can come in and add to that. So that’s a draw there, that I’m coming to a team that’s going to create chances, so hopefully I can repay them by putting the ball in the back of the net as much as possible.”
Another pulling factor to the Saints is their full-time status. They train five-days a week and are currently playing friendlies whilst the Cymru Premier is on lockdown.
“I wanted to stay within full-time football. Having experienced it for a short time, it was something I wanted to carry on. There’s nothing better than just being able to rock up every day and kick a ball around with your mates for a few hours and I’m privileged that I’m someone that can do that every day, because there’s many people that would love to be in that position as well.”
The striker became the sides’ most expensive signing in their history though he doesn’t believe this will tarnish performances.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s added pressure, I’ve shown before that I can score in this league and I’m more than confident that I can do it again. Having said that, I still need to work hard on making sure that I do score, just because I’ve done it once, doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll do it again.
”People may create chances for me, but you still have to put the ball in the back of the net and going back to being full-time, it allows you to put even more practice on my finishing. It’s not something I would necessarily feel the pressure of, but it’s something I’ve been brought into the club to do and I know I’m capable of doing it, so whenever the season continues, depending on how many games there are left in the season, I’ll set myself a little goal target of what I think I can achieve, given how many games are left.”
The signing will massively improve the side, with club chairman Mike Harris voicing his hopes of TNS becoming the first domestic Welsh team to make the group stages of European competition.
“I think it’s a team game at the end of the day, I would just be a part of the cog that gets the team ticking. There’s plenty of quality in that squad, I’ve only been training now, it’s the start of my second week. The quality is there and I knew that before signing, so hopefully I’m just adding to that and can help to get us to where the club wants to be and get to the group stages of a European competition.
“I think at the moment we’re in the driving seat, granted that Connah’s Quay are three points behind us with a game in hand, so if they win that, it’s all level. I’m confident, I’m coming into a squad that have got multiple, multiple titles, so they know what it’s like when the pressure comes on and what it takes to get that end goal of winning the league, so hopefully I can just help the team to win the league again.”
(Featured image: Matthew Lofthouse)
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