Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen
Firstly I would like to welcome Guisborough Town to our ground this afternoon, in a match which brings around the reverse fixture for the first time this season as we played them in only our second game of the season.
We will hopefully be on the right end of the result today, as a missed penalty and other opportunities in the away fixture made the result hard to take.
We go into the game on arguably the best result we have had this season, beating high flying West Auckland last Friday to push us into the top eight.
I thought we played excellently against Consett the week before but cruelly we could not hold on for at least a point, although I thought we were worth all three, but last Friday the boys managed to see out the game with a clean sheet, and also beat one of the most experienced and expensive squads in the division. The lads have shown in both those games the potential we have in our very young squad if they do things correctly and play the way we set them up.
On the injury front things went from bad to worse with Chris Winn, and assistant manager Dan having COVID so they had to miss the games and Tom Hunter having a hamstring strain which meant he missed out as well.
Hopefully there is light at end of the tunnel as I don’t think it will be much longer before Max Allen and club Captain Gregg Swansbury are back in the squad and giving us much needed experience. Also summer signing Andrew Johnson is making good progress in his rehab from his cartilage operation which is a big boost as he is guaranteed to put defenders on the back foot and gets goals out of nothing.
I’m hoping that once these lads are back that is us done with injuries for the season, as we have had more than our fair share.
Hopefully today you can get behind the players and help us push on for the season with bit more consistency.
Thanks for your continued support
Steve