Boss’s door is open for young stars Ellison says it’s vital to have u-18s around seniors

MICHAEL Ellison has revealed several Runcorn Linnets under-18 stars are now working in and around the first team squad at the Millbank Stadium.

Linnets recorded their third consecutive BetVictor North West Division victory in a closely-fought 1-0 win at Kendal Town on Saturday following Connor McCarthy’s first-half strike.

“I don’t know if my heart can take much more of that!” Ellison said after an evenlyfought second period.

“If you look over the full game, we’ve had enough chances to kill them off.

“I thought we were excellent in the first half in really, really tough conditions. The pitch cut up really, really bad.

“Some of the football we played and chances we created, we got one and then obviously kept a clean sheet.

“We said before the game if we kept a clean sheet we knew we’d get chances but we could have made it a lot easier for ourselves near the end.

“I’ll take the three points and the clean sheet and we move on.”

Homegrown talent Ryan Gibson missed the win at Kendal but after an impressive start to the campaign, Ellison is hoping to bring more prospects through the system.

“It’s really important,” he continued. “To have a local lad in the side (and) not just because he’s a local lad, because he’s got to be good enough first and foremost.

“We’ve now got the link with the under18s, they train alongside us on a Thursday, and there’s a couple of lads in and around the squad.

“Gibbo, you’re always going to miss a player like him because if you look at his development from this season to last season, he’s been outstanding in the previous games.

“But it shows the strength of the squad that we’ve got players like him missing and we’re still getting results.

“It’s three on the bounce now so hopefully we can start looking up rather than looking behind us.”

● Ryan Gibson; inset, boss Michael Ellison