Ahead of tomorrow’s league match at home to Redditch United (3:00 KO), manager Tim Flowers has looked at the opposition, our latest addition and squad injuries. He starts with his thoughts on his first two matches back in the Sporting dugout…
“Looking at the first two games – obviously we started with a difficult trip down to Bishop’s Stortford, who had been on a good run of form. I thought with the way the lads set up, and the effort and commitment levels they put in, we probably deserved to get at least a point.
“We created some good chances and looked quite fluid at times going forward, but shot ourselves in the foot with two mistakes defensively for the goals and maybe that’s been a bit of a theme.
“All in all, you’d have to reflect and say it’s a game we should have got something out of – but we didn’t.
“As for the Raiders cup game on Tuesday – obviously it was a game we should have been expected to win. It was played on a poor pitch in fairness and it was a very even game – they could have gotten a couple of goals and we could have too – we hit the bar and got one or two balls in good areas that we didn’t manage to convert. We eventually won on penalties, to set up a semi final against Redditch.
“Redditch are having a good season – Mike (Fowler – manager) is doing a super job there. They’ve had a new pitch put down and they’ve invested in the first team budget, which has resulted in some really decent players – lads who I would imagine will be easily recognisable to fans at higher levels – let alone this one.
“They’ve recruited a good, strong squad, with depth to it. They can have injuries and replace them, so it’s going to be a really tough game.
“We’re in a precarious position right now, but we obviously have got games and a little bit of time for us to sort it out. It’s a tough time of the year to recruit, because nobody wants to let anybody out around Christmas, as they want to keep a squad depth. Usually you have lads available who either aren’t good enough or want too much money.
“We’ve worked really hard over the last 10 days to try and get some bodies in. Obviously Tyrone Lewthwaite is one that we identified after it became apparent he’d left Corby. He’s operated at this level and higher – people will remember him from Kettering and Bedford, and he scored 8 in 16 this year for Corby.
“He’ll bring physicality and experience. He knows, and has scored at, the level and he’s a good player – I’ve seen him play on numerous occasions. It adds to that group of front players that we’ve got and, as it goes along, we’re looking to add more.
“Unfortunately, the Southern League have shut down over Christmas, so registering players has not been easy. We’ve got one or two others that we’ve been looking at that we might not get sorted for tomorrow but we’ll see.
“Injury wise, Jaden Charles is carrying a hamstring injury and he did some running on Tuesday night at the game so we’ll monitor him. We took a precaution with Jordan Lyden and Luke Benbow on Tuesday – the latter after he came off with a neck injury at Stortford – but I expect them to be there or thereabouts tomorrow.”
