Cooper doesn’t believe club will climb table until players return
Windsor FC: Boss encouraged by aspects of performance against Wembley but defensive frailties remain
Windsor managed to pick up a point from Saturday's trip to Wembley, and while manager Mark Cooper was heartened by his side's display, he admitted they're not likely to start climbing the Combined Counties Premier Division North table until players return from injury.
The Royalists have been competitive in most of their matches this season, often winning or losing by the odd goal, but they've managed that without most of their defence who've been missing through injury.
Once again, those issues came to the fore on Saturday as the side failed to hold onto the 2-1 second half lead given to them by strikes from Lindell
Stewart and Jake Hammond. Wembley, who sit just below them in mid-table, hit back with a penalty in the final 20 minutes and the Royalists were forced to settle for a share of the spoils.
It was the same, but in slightly different circumstances the previous week, when Windsor netted a 96th minute equaliser through Ethan Etukudo to steal a draw from the hands of defeat against bottom of the table Holyport.
Those results have left Windsor eighth in the table, far enough away from the skirmishes against relegation below them but not close enough to the battle for promotion above them.
And that, Cooper says, won't change until they return to something resembling full strength and start picking up clean sheets on a regular basis.
“I hope that in three weeks’ time we’ll have the squad we’ve been looking for all season,” he said. “Our two centre halves have been out all season and we’ve had two right backs who have come in and got injured. These have been senior players as well.
“I don’t want to harp on about it, everyone has issues with their own squads, but our injuries have all been in the same position.
“It’s not been spread through the team. Defensively we’ve lost the whole back four.
“Until we start keeping regular clean sheets and have a settled back four, we’re not going to move up the table.”
Fortunately for Windsor their front line and attacking players have fired this season, meaning they're always capable of getting a goal or two and being in contention. They managed this a couple of weeks ago when they deservedly beat Ascot United 3-1 at Stag Meadow and they'll be hoping for a similar performance when they travel to fourth placed Abbey Rangers on Saturday.
“Competitive is a good word,” said Cooper. “Because that’s what we want to be in every game we play. Of late, we’ve managed to be that, but we’re still in a position where we’re playing players out of position.
“We had Danny Horscroft playing at left back and once again Luke Appleton wasn’t available.
“Our problem quite clearly is keeping clean sheets and you’re not going to be successful when you concede the number of goals we do.
“A big part of that has been down to our horrendous injury situation in defence. We’ve been good going forward and have proved that by scoring goals wherever we’ve been, but we’ve got to get more secure defensively.”
Abbey have won eight of their 10 league matches this season, so Cooper is under no illusions as to the task facing his players this weekend.
“They’ve started brilliantly,” said Cooper. “They’re in a different league to the one we were in last season. Looking at their record we’ll have a tough day.
“We’re a week or two away from having everyone back. Difficult match, we’ll be as competitive as possibly can be but we’re under no illusions as to how tough it will be.”