Toolstation Assistant boss confident Roman Glass will start moving up the table
LIAM Greening weighed up Roman Glass St George’s unwanted Premier Division position and declared: “We’re ready to hit back now.”
Third-bottom Saints, who triumphantly entered the Western League top-flight for the first time in their history last spring, have seen their fortunes nosedive following a good start.
Tomorrow, they host Hallen on the Oaklands Park 3G seeking a first league win in seven attempts, and their assistant boss believes a positive outcome can spark a recovery.
Greening said: “We’re in the mood to kick on again now. There’s a good reason why we’re down where we are and that is injuries and lots of them.
“There’s been a lot of talk about us dropping down the table, but I don’t believe our position reflects the quality of players we have and I’m 100 per cent certain we’ll turn things around.
“We began the season so well when everyone was fit and available and finally, after a testing last six weeks, things are getting back to normal and we will be a threat again.
“Most of our unavailability issues have related to our attack, but Jake Cox, Ryan Radford, Nathan Legge and Rhys Hodgson are now back in business.
“It’s a shame Lewis Wentland, another forward, broke his ankle against Bridgwater recently, but we are looking to add new faces too.”
The Saints’ No 2 to Andy Gurney added: “Despite being heavily depleted and the rotten luck they have faced, the lads have been magnificent, the way they have stuck together in adversity.
“After a magnificent last year this is not a situation we’ve been used to, but with more bodies back now I know we can rise to become a match for anyone on our day once more.”
Bitton boss Dan Langdon has challenged his on-song charges to demonstrate they can cut the mustard when it comes to their Premier Division title and promotion aspirations.
The ambitious fourth-placed Bath Road fliers head into tomorrow’s home game with Bradford Town buoyed by seven straight wins, six of them in the league.
“We’ll face Bradford feeling very positive with those seven wins and 29 goals scored over that period,” said Langdon.
“We spoke as a group after our (2-1) win over Cribbs on Tuesday night and everyone insisted we can push for the title, but that we’d need to take as many points as possible from the next few games to be serious contenders.
“Joe McLennan put us in front on the half-hour with a half-volley and deserved it for a hard-working performance and Dean Griffiths, who has has been superb of late, set up Kane Ingram for our second goal soon after the break before Cribbs got one back to make it a little nervy at the end.”
Bitton’s 21-goal leading marksman Ben Bament misses out tomorrow with a hamstring condition, but left-back Jordan Thaws and right-back Gerard Robinson come into the reckoning again.
“Jordan had to be patient at the start of the season as we’d been going so well,” Langdon explained. “But as captain of our reserves he has stuck with us, despite offers from other local clubs, and taken his opportunity with both hands.
“Gerard recently joined us from Shirehampton in the Somerset County League and he’s done really well too, playing maximum minutes in our last two games.”
Another team enjoying upward motion at last are Chipping Sodbury Town, who have won both their Premier games, at Odd Down and Hengrove Athletic, since Bitton beat them 4-1 late last month.
Sodbury have risen to 12th ahead of tomorrow’s stern test at home against unbeaten Westbury United, the team they held to a highlycommendable 1-1 draw on a midNovember trip.
Head coach Steve White insisted: “We should have won it too and the lads gained great confidence from it.
“Eleven short weeks ago we were rock-bottom of the table with zero points from our first five games.
“Since Joe (manager White) and I have come in the lads have been great, really taking on board what we’ve asked of them.
“Our back four has been together for a few games now and done much better.
“The challenge now is can we make it three wins on the spin and become the first team to beat Westbury this season?”
Cribbs travel to Clevedon Town buoyed by Saturday’s magnificent 4-2 FA Vase victory at Saltash United, which has set up a January 5 date at home with Sholing, the 2014 Vase Wembley victors, who are unbeaten at the head of the Wessex Premier Division.
“Obviously celebrations went on long into the night and it’s a credit to our lads as they were superb on a really difficult surface,” manager Tony Beecham acknowledged.
“We were without Greg Andrews, Ben Dowdell, Tom Collett and Sam Iles for it too, and after George Kellow’s opener for us was cancelled out five minutes later, we lost our way for 60 minutes and ended up having to fight back from 2-1 down.”
Also in the Premier Division tomorrow, Brislington entertain Wellington and Hengrove host Bridport, while Cadbury Heath strive to shake off last weekend’s remarkable 8-4 FA Vase humbling at the hands of St Austell with victory at Odd Down.
Game of the day in the First Division sees third-placed Keynsham Town and second-spot Chard Town locking horns at the Crown Field, while also at home are Ashton & Backwell United (v Warminster), Bishop Sutton (v Portishead), Longwell Green (v Sherborne), Oldland Abbotonians (v Corsham) and Welton Rovers (v Wincanton).