Toolstation Hallen set for a big day in the company of Liverpool legend Barnes
HALLEN are gearing up for a red-letter weekend – in the company of Liverpool legend John Barnes.
While Brislington come to Moorhouse Lane tomorrow for an important bottom-five Premier Division bout, much of the day’s activities centre on Barnes, the former flying winger who was capped 79 times by England and made 314 appearances for Liverpool between 1987 and 1997.
Hallen chairman Lee Fairman said: “John is hosting a special evening in our recently-refurbished clubhouse but we’ve persuaded him to officially unveil our new 3G court at the club after the Bris game. It’s a FIFA-approved surface which our first team, reserves, eight junior sides and a couple of girls teams will be making good use of and we’ll have goalkeeping coaching there, too.
“We’ll also be hiring it out to other sports clubs and organisations, be it rugby, netball or athletics for example, as the carpet and underlay are of such high quality.”
Of the evening event, Fairman said: “Tickets were sold out two days after going on sale and it’s great that a lot of our former players and officials snapped them up. It should be a wonderful occasion all round.”
Hallen are out to bounce back from Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat by Bridport when skipper and centrehalf Scott Thomas was sent off for a second time this term, triggering a five-game ban.
Former Mangotsfield United, Odd Down and Henbury midfielder Caelen Simpson is among a clutch of new arrivals.
Steve White is urging Chipping Sodbury Town to respond determinedly to Saturday’s Shepton Mallet setback at home against Roman Glass St George tomorrow. The former Swindon Town and Bristol Rovers striker, now accompanying his son Joe at the Ridings helm, watched in frustration as Sodbury followed a 5-0 Les Phillips Cup mauling of Shortwood United with a 4-0 defeat at Shepton back in the Prem.
“Joe and I knew when we came in that it would be a difficult task,” said White. “The team had no points from their first five games and we had to stem the flow of goals against.
“The reality is we’ve won five and lost seven of our league and cup games since our arrival, but while performance levels have generally been better, Saturday at Shepton was the first time you could say those levels dropped and we’ll need to raise them at home against Roman Glass.”
Elsewhere in the top-flight, Cadbury Heath (v Shepton), Clevedon (v Willand) and Hengrove (v Wellington) are all at home while Bitton go to fast-rising Buckland.
Portishead Town boss Alan Tyers is backing his second-bottom charges to give more First Division big guns a run for their money – if he can get his most influential performers involved more regularly.
“That’s our biggest headache; being unable to field the same 11 from week to week,” he admitted.
“We’ve shown what we can do when we have a full-strength side out, none more so than at Welton recently who we beat 3-0 when they were top of the table. I had to make five changes for various reasons at the weekend and what happened? Devizes beat us 5-0.
“A few days before that we’d lost 2-1 at Ashton and Backwell in the Les Phillips Cup but had played well, only for our centre-back Chris Abbot to dislocate his shoulder and James Hughes (midfielder) to injure his ankle.”
To compound Tyers’ personnel problems full-backs Luke Mortimore and Joe Lott, and centre-half Ollie Hatfield, are unavailable for tomorrow’s trip to face fellow strugglers Chippenham Park along with Hughes and Abbot.
Clive Scott believes the recent departure of tenacious central midfielder Lewis Hunt to Larkhall Athletic played a part in Welton Rovers’ dip in fortunes.
“He was a big miss and it took a while to adjust to,” the West Clewes chief insisted. “Lewis was so dominant in midfield and while his work-rate might have gone unnoticed by some, it was obvious to those in the know that life would be more challenging without him in there and he won a deserved move to Larkhall.”
Welton crashed to successive 4-1 and 3-0 league defeats against Wincanton and Portishead and then lost their place in the Les Phillips Cup courtesy of a 3-1 home defeat by Premier Division pacesetters Bridgwater before steadying up with a 2-1 league win at Sherborne.
“I’ve no idea what went wrong against Portishead but they deserved it,” Scott accepted.
“We had been making a habit of giving teams one-goal starts and I’d long warned our lads that would come back to bite us at some point and so it proved.”
Welton host Calne tomorrow and ar ethen at home to Bath City on Tuesday in the Somerset Premier Cup seoncd round.
Bishop Sutton player-boss David Stone is happy with his new acquisition Kyle Box, who scored twice on his debut in the 6-1 away thumping of Longwell Green.
“Kyle set up two goals too, so did well,” Stone said of the right-sided attacker. “He’d been at Keynsham since he was a youngster but wanted more game-time with competition for places so intense there.”
A full-strength Sutton, who host Sherborne tomorrow, have won three and drawn two of their last six league games and Stone is hoping to limit his own appearances again, and with good reason.
“I played at right-back in our recent (2-0) Les Phillips Cup defeat by Keynsham and paid the price for several days after,” the 33-year-old said. “I have osteoarthritis affecting my left hip and playing against them, and making three other appearances from the bench of late because of a lack of available bodies, reminded me why I went into management!”