Player/manager insists team doesn't want to settle for less
The Isle of Man men's national football side don't want to settle for anything less than top spot at the 2025 Island Games later this month.
That's the ambition set out by the squad's caretaker player/manager Chris Bass jnr. with the team jetting off to Orkney in less than two weeks time.
Having been games champions in Gotland in 2017, the Manx side had a disappointing campaign by its standards at the last event in Guernsey two years ago, finishing ninth.
After picking a much-changed lineup this time around, Bass says he was keen to bring in players with experience of winning at the event alongside the younger talent that will be involved:
One of the most decorated players in Manx football of recent times, Bass took up his role in January this year following the resignation of previous head coach, Blane Slattery.
Since then, Bass steered the team to victory in their first game under his leadership, beating Merseyside-based Halewood Apollo 4-3 in April.
That's been followed more recently by a 1-1 draw away at Trearddur Bay on Saturday, 21 June.
The Island side will take part in its final friendly before the games later this week when they face FC Isle of Man at The Bowl in Douglas tomorrow (4 July), kicking-off at 7pm.
You can see the IoM Men's Football squad for the 2025 Island Games - scheduled to be held from 12-18 July - in full below:
2025 Island Games IoM Men's football squad
Chris Bass jnr. (Player/Manager) Joao Marques
Mark Blair Tomas Brown
Sammy Gelling Joe Bergquist
James Callister Jason Charmer
Sean Doyle Lee Gale
Karl Clark Daniel Simpson
Stewart Smith Morgan Naylor
Frank Jones Harry Best
Matthew Woods Conor Clark
Daniel Pickering Jay Gandy
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