Holbeach United Bench Talk

A warm welcome to everyone from Holbeach for this first game for both of us in this seasons FA Vase competition. It is not the easiest or quickest journey for them but I am sure they are used to a fair amount of travelling in the Eagle Bitter United Counties League from their east coast base just south of Boston in Lincolnshire.

Their league is the equivalent standard to our Midland Alliance and they currently occupy third spot following their midweek defeat at the hands of Stewart and Lloyds of Corby. Holbeach finished runners-up in the league last season and a brief look at their squad quickly establishes that they have a host of quality players in their set up.

Clearly, this will be a difficult tie, but despite our extensive injury list we have one or two quality players out on the field ourselves. It is now a case of showing commitment and playing to the game plan allied to a disciplined approach and then letting the rest take care of itself.

Last Saturday saw us go down by 3-0 at home to Handrahan Timbers in a game where we probably had 60-65% of the play and do nothing with it. We then gifted the opposition all their goals with schoolboy errors and came off the pitch wondering where it all went wrong.

Last Tuesday saw us beat Derbyshire Police 4-1 in the first round of the National Police Cup. We created a host of chances through out the first period before Dave Blake side footed home a pass from Gavin Smith who ghosted round their defence before turning the ball into the path of Dave on 30 minutes. The second half saw us miss another couple of opportunities and then lapse into a period of sloppy play, which cost us when Derbyshire grabbed an equaliser 20 minutes into the half.

That woke us up and five minutes later a great run and cross from Dave Blake on the right was bulleted home by the head of Kevin Usher. We upped the tempo and two further goals from Dave Blake completed his first hat-trick for the first team and saw us coast to a very comfortable victory in the end.

As usual, availability and fitness of players leaves me unsure as to my starting line-up for today's game. Lee Wharmby has a question mark hanging over him re his tweaked hamstring whilst Kevin Usher has a slight groin strain and Dave Blake has a dodgy ankle. I am also awaiting news on Keiron McDade's twisted ankle and it is unlikely that Dave Harnett will have recovered from his knee strain. If you add the long term casualties of Mark Bellingham, Ian Millward, Carl Hancox, Mark Langley and Mike Mason then it all adds up to quite a list.

Lyndon Price is also missing as he is away on his hols and Jamie Evans will be out for about another four or five weeks as he seeks to recover from a very serious bout of viral meningitis that saw him detained in hospital for 10 days. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back at the ground within the next couple of weeks.

Ollie Latchford, Andy Reece and Darren Carmell are definitely back in the selection pot and we hope that you see an enjoyable game of football.