Boro injury woe
●● Haslingden St Mary’s celebrate after a goalless draw against Burscough Richmond handed them the West Lancs League Division One title. See 53 SHELDAN KEAY ACUP Borough manager Brent Peters believes that injuries at the early stage of the season played a big part in his side’s disappointing campaign.
BPeters’ side finished 18th in the North West Counties Division One this season, having won 11 of their 42 matches.
It came one year after Bacup reached the playoff final, with the side hoping to challenge for promotion again this season.
That didn’t turn out to be the case, and Peters insists his side had a mountain to climb from a very early stage during this campaign.
“Twelve months ago having got to the play offfinal and falling short in extra time, the majority of that squad re-signed all sharing the same view that we would all go out in giving it a good go for automatic promotion,” he said.
“In addition to what was a very good squad I brought in several new additions, with the objective being these boys would give us a really good base to hit the ground running, however what I did not legislate for was returning back for preseason training with experienced players still suffering from injuries from the previous season.
“This was a massive blow considering I did not see this coming. We started the season without the services of club captain Shane Birtles having to have surgery on his knee. Shane has still not fully recovered missing the entire season.
“My goalkeeper Josh Harris played on through the play off final with a broken foot, this proved to be problematic by the fact he also needed surgery which brought with it complications.
“Experienced longserving defender Gareth Wager broke down in presseason with a recurrence of an old injury, and if this was not bad enough former Oldham Athletic star Kelvin Trippier was also needing to go for surgery on an ankle injury and he missed the start.”
Peters also felt that those injuries restricted his side from having a good chance of putting together an FA Cup run.
“The fact that our opening fixture was away to newly crowned Premier League champions Atherton Collieries in the FA Cup, a competition which brings with it prize money along with national recognition was not ideal at all,” he said.
“In fact, frustratingly we could only just get a side together.”
‘Experienced players were still suffering from injuries from the previous season’