Gus praises the attitude of his players
COLWYN Bay manager Gus Williams is confident his squad can secure their Conference North status over the final third of the season, writes Tim Channon.
The Seagulls have lost four league games in a row for the first time in two years and picked up only two points from their last seven starts to slide into the bottom five, but the spirit in the camp remains strong.
“It’s a transitional period for the players, but their attitude has been unquestionable,” said Williams. “They have had to take in a lot of information in training and need to digest that mentally and physically before we can start to move forward.
“But there are 15 games left and we have set ourselves a points tally that we think we need from those games – and that is certainly achievable with the ability we have available in the changing room.
“Players that we’ve got coming in only strengthens and adds to that ability.”
Attacking midfielder Tom Buckley is back with the Bay after a short spell at Salford City, while international clearance has come through for Wigan loanee defender Mike Wilson, who is set to make his belated debut at Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday.
Oldham Athletic have also agreed to extend Jordan Bove’s loan deal until the end of the season.
Injured skipper Marc Williams, whose absence for the last month has been a huge loss, hopes he could also be able to resume playing in time for the final run in.
The one worry is the back spasm that forced keeper Chris Sanna to be substituted in last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at Barrow.
With Josh Ollerenshaw now on a month’s loan at Buxton, the injury provided young reserve team keeper Gareth Rees with an unexpected senior debut and he made a couple of excellent second-half saves.
Sanna’s injury was certainly a factor in Bay being unable to hold onto Wes Baynes’ first-half goal at title contenders Barrow.
Sanna was injured just before the break and was clearly struggling in the second half in the lead up to Barrow’s 58th-minute equaliser which changed the game in the home team’s favour.