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You may have seen Carl Timms and Earl Alexander recently make the step up to the 1st team but Saturday saw another debut, this time for Reserve team skipper James Parkinson. James has been doing ever so well in the Reserves and one of his big assets to his game is that he’s a great talker on the park. I was very pleased to hear that he played well at the centre of defence and did him and the Reserve team proud. Back to our defeat at Boldmere and although the score-line may not suggest it, the game was a lot closer than 4-0. The most disappointing thing was that we gifted all the goals to Boldmere. We have had a lengthy chat about the game and the lessons learnt and I’m sure we will be in the right frame of mind today for our visit to Highgate.

Saturday s game was our first of the season in which we haven’t scored and the first game that Mykey Pryce hasn’t scored in either. Mykey should have been in the squad for Tuesdays Trophy replay at Harrogate but unfortunately work commitments meant that he couldn’t make the trip. However, I’m sure if he keeps playing well that an opportunity to see if he can cut it in the 1st team wont be far away. I’m getting great reports back about the performances of Carl Timms and hopefully people can see what Simon and I were talking about when we were saying what a good player he was who deserved a chance. He had performed consistently well for us and when given the chance he has taken it with both hands. Fair play to him and I hope he continues to impress. Earl has struggled a little of late but in fairness he hasn’t played regularly in the last few weeks and in my opinion, may be lacking in a bit of match fitness and could probably benefit from a couple of games back with us. He is a player more than capable of doing the business in the Western Division and maybe even higher.

Matt Moran’s performance’s over the last 4 or 5 games has him prominent in the minds of John and Alan too. Matt has to be patient and keep putting in the performances and as i said recently I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he’s given the chance. In fact he made the bench for the Dr Martins Cup game against Hinckley but unfortunately wasn’t used.

We are looking at maybe bringing 1 or 2 new faces and we are talking to the clubs of a couple of potential additions this week. The criteria of any new addition to the squad is very simple. They must be better than we already have so that we can try to continuously improve the squad to replace those who do make the step up as well as maybe those who wont be able too. My assistant, Simon and I share the same vision. We are trying to create a young squad with lads who have the ability or the potential to make the step up into the 1st team. Our vision is backed up by the fact that the average age of the Reserve team squad this season is 20.

Young Nathan Tate continues to do well in the Reserves and often turns out for Tony in the youth team as does Mat Brown. Mats chances have been limited but when called upon he hasn’t let us down. He has a great attitude and if he works hard may get a few opportunities later in the season.

Gaz Norton