Rebuilding for Rams’ renewed promotion tilt
WITH the Government and the FA signalling the green light for the return of competitive football, Rams manager Chris Willcock is looking to put together his squad for the new season.
Willcock and the Rams will be looking to challenge at the top end of the table after being thwarted in his attempt to gain promotion last time round, as a result of the season being declared “null and void”.
Sitting in second spot, ten points behind leaders Workington, but with three games in hand, a run of just one defeat in seventeen league games had put the Rams in an excellent position to regain their place in the league’s Premier Division.
It looks as though the new league campaign will begin on September 19th, and as such training sessions have now commenced with a number of new recruits likely to replace those that have moved on.
Leaving the club is leading scorer Nic Evangelinos, who has moved up two divisions to join Curzon Ashton, whilst keeper Tom Stewart has stepped up one division to Stalybridge Celtic.
Reuben Jerome has accepted an offer to join the afore-mentioned Workington, whilst onloan Josh Hmami has been released by his parent Welsh club TNS, but opted to join league rivals Marine.
Ben Richardson, after a short stint with the club towards the end of last season, has returned to his former club Mossley.
However, the majority of last season’s successful squad are likely to remain at the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, with the manager close to signing deals with a number of newcomers in a bid to go one better this time round and regain the position in the Premier Division that was lost in 2016.
A number of pre-season friendlies are in the process of being arranged, although current government restrictions would appear to deny the supporters the opportunity of watching these.
Hopefully the current trial of sporting events with limited crowds will prove successful, in which case the government may relax the instruction and supporters can finally return to grounds and begin to enjoy football once more ahead of the new campaign.