City look to young guns

Canterbury City

Canterbury manager Chris Woollcott sees an opportunity for young players to stake their claim when football resumes. Clubs are set to face a busy schedule making up for lost time following the second Covid-19 lockdown.

Woollcott took the chance to look at some youngsters in a 4-1 friendly win at Greenways last weekend and feels they will have a part to play in Southern

Counties East.

He said: “The way it’s going we’ll be playing six fixtures a month if we want to get the season finished so we’ll have to dip into the reserves, the 18s, the 23s, whatever team it may be. “I do like to make a point of giving youngsters an opportunity.

“We have a competitive under18 side who are second in the Kent Youth League, and there’s a couple of players in there. “If you include friendlies we’ve played seven or eight youngsters in the first team this season, four in competitive games, and they’ve done really well. A couple of them have started here and there.

“We’ve been impressed with them and it keeps the first team on their toes.

“It’s about getting that balance right. Is it too early? Will they be overawed playing against men? “For 16/17-year-olds, they’ve done really well. We won’t have a massive squad but we do need a bigger squad for all the games we have coming up. “Before lockdown I was having to make four or five changes because people were burnt out, so it’s going to be important to have a slightly bigger squad. “It’s a great opportunity for youngsters, not just at our club, but across the league, to get involved. I wouldn’t be surprised to see lots of rotation.” Canterbury are due back in action against Deal on December 28 but the league are yet to confirm the restart date. Even if football does resume then, City could still find themselves without a game that day as Deal could be made to play their postponed FA Vase tie against Binfield. Woollcott said: “We’re planning for December 28, just to make sure we’re ready, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the restart date is pushed back to

January. It might be that Deal play their Vase game anyway. We’ll have to see what happens.” The Greenways match proved a useful workout in Canterbury’s first friendly since lockdown. Woollcott said: “We weren’t doing a lot at the beginning but seeing quite a few teams training, we felt we had to. “We didn’t want to come back too soon but we think we’ve got it right. Saturday was our first friendly and we have a couple more. “Greenways were a really good possession-based team, so they made us work hard, but we ended up winning 4-1.”