Caretaker boss poised to bolster Bards squad
THERE could be two new players in the Stratford Town side for their match with AFC Sudbury on Saturday with caretaker boss Paul Davis looking to boost the numbers after a frenetic festive run of fixtures.
But experienced defender Chris Hussey’s time with the Bards is over. Former manager Gavin Hurren has taken him to Hednesford Town for an undisclosed fee.
Missed chances proved costly for Stratford as they lost 1-0 at Leiston on Saturday with Davis admitting that the burden of so many games over Christmas had finally caught up with his side.
“At 0-0 we had three or four really good chances but weren’t clinical,” he said. “I don’t want to be too critical of the players because you can have off days but not to score on the day was disappointing. Scoring at the right time means you go on and win the game.
“To be honest, I thought we looked a bit tired. It was our fifth game in 14 days, a long journey and a lot of players had played a lot of minutes in those games. We had two big matches over the Christmas period against Kettering and Telford – playing with ten men for 70 minutes in one of those – and it just caught up with us.
“In terms of numbers we probably have 16 fit players. Molly [Jamie Molyneux] is still out although he is back training.
“We are trying to get a couple of deals tied up this week but they have to be the right people as well as the right players and we think we have identified the ones we want.”
One of those could be West Bromwich Albion youngster Alex Williams who had a loan spell at the club earlier in the season and impressed when the Baggies knocked Town out of the Birmingham Senior Cup at the start of December.
The other player is likely to be a central defender which would allow Lewis Ison to return to his midfield role.
The Bards boss said: “Ice has been brilliant at the back and to be fair to him, he’s not moaned once – a model professional. I have to say though that for the first time on Saturday I thought we missed him in midfield.”
But Davis added that there were no plans to bring striker Andre Wright back into the team even though he had been among the goals at Evesham United where his is on loan.
He explained: “Andre has been doing well and scored a hat-trick on Saturday but I think the best thing for him is to be playing so we are looking at extending his loan at Evesham because it means we can have him on a 24-hour call-back in case we feel we need him for the run-in.”
The Bards go into Saturday’s match with AFC Sudbury in second place, four points behind Southern League Premier Central leaders Kettering, and they are at home again on Tuesday when St Ives Town are the visitors.
