Jennings can force his way in
KEATON Jennings can win a place in this summer’s Ashes side by scoring a glut of runs for Lancashire this summer, says England head coach Trevor Bayliss.
His first overseas assignment in the role, a fine 2-1 success in South Africa in 2015-16, ended with question marks over batsmen Alex Hales, Nick Compton and James Taylor and Bayliss calling for challengers to emerge.
Six Test tours later, there is a sense of deja vu with Rory Burns, Jennings and Joe Denly the men under the microscope and Bayliss once again seeking contenders.
“We’re still looking for those places. Supporters of English cricket want to have 11 exceptional cricketers but it’s taking time,” Bayliss said.
“The guys trying to nail those places down are working their backsides off to do well in international cricket but it’s taken a bit longer than they would like and longer than we would like as well.
“The top three positions, the struggles they’ve had, is well documented. They’ve all shown what they can do but it’s about doing it more regularly. Those three guys are the incumbents in those positions, I suppose.
“If they come out and score as heavily as they have done in the last few years in county cricket then it might be difficult to look past them.
“If Keaton comes out and scores a lot of runs in the early matches of the season and no-one else does then there might not be a decision to make.” ●● Ruben Jerome races clear against Colwyn Bay ●● NEWCASTLE TOWN ....... 0 RAMSBOTTOM UTD ....... 6 JON HASLAM
RA M S B O T TOM United continued their quest for a play off berth with a visit to Staffordshire on Tuesday night to take on a mid table Newcastle Town and returned home with all three points after a convincing victory.
It was the visitors from Lancashire who had the bulk of the possession and attacking threat in the first quarter of the game with Newcastle threatening the play off chasers on the break with Mike Conlon and Matt Ward in particular causing the away side some moments of anxiety.
New signing Tom Schofield showed his shooting capabilities with a well struck 20 yard effort but Newcastle Town should have opened the scoring with the best chance of the contest up to that point when a cross from the left hand side found an unmarked Josh Glover but the midfielder’s header from no more than eight yards sailed wide of Sam Ashton’s goal much to the relief of Chris Willcock’s side.
The let off appeared to stir the away side into action and a period of sustained pressure saw the Rams denied an opener when a speculative cross shot from Khalil Osi-Efa looked to have beaten the home goalie Matt Johnson but bounced off the crossbar to deny the midfielder just after the half hour point.
The woodwork came to the hosts rescue when Nic Evangelinos was on the end of a flowing move down the left channel before unleashing a powerful effort which thundered off the crossbar.
Minutes later the breakthrough arrived when an exemplary cross from the left hand side from Tom Kennedy found leading scorer Evangelinos whose well placed header found the back of the net to give the Rams a deserved lead on 38 minutes.
Before the break Eddie Moran sent a header against the post.
Ramsbottom began the second half in a similar vein to the way they ended the first with a couple of early chances which went begging.
Then, with five minutes of the second period played wide man Irywah Gooden picked up the ball before setting off on a surging run which took the speedy winger into the penalty are before a lunging Newcastle defender tripped the Mansfield loanee. After consultation with his assistant the referee awarded a spot kick for the Rams and squeezed the ball between the keeper and post to double the visitors’ advantage.
Things would improve further for the Rams minutes before the hour mark when persistent hard work from Jamie Rainford paid dividends when Johnson in the home goal had the ball at his feet but the visiting forward chased down the Town stopper before nicking it away from the beleaguered number one and firing home in splendid fashion.
In response, Newcastle made a third substitution of the match and pushed forward looking to reduce the deficit.
With the match at the three quarter point Chris Willcock responded with two alterations as Ryan Ellison and Ruben Jerome entered the fray.
Moments later things went from bad to worse for the home side when half time substitute Lint limped out of the action leaving Newcastle down to ten men for the remaining quarter of the encounter having utilised their full complement of changes.
With Ramsbottom three goals to the good and the ●● The Rams celebrate Jamie Rainford’s late winner opposition a player light, the remainder of the contest was played out with the away side pushing forward relentlessly for more goals whilst the hosts laboured to keep the rampant visitors at bay.