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Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Paul Wotton’s latest presser

Injuries and Availability

On a Friday afternoon when it was good to get in from the pouring rain, Paul Wotton joined Guy Henderson, Dave Thomas and I at Plainmoor for this week’s press call. A rising tide of injuries leaves selection for tomorrow’s match at Maidenhead uncertain.

Wednesday’s 2 goal hero Louis Dennis may well miss out with the tight hamstring that led him to be subbed before half time at Farnborough. He has a slight chance of being fit tomorrow, but it’s more likely that two and a half days won’t be enough to get it right.

Paul also referred to two other injuries which are being closely monitored and make players doubtful for Saturday. He said Torquay are dealing with this “hour to hour” at present. He hasn’t yet picked the team and because there is still some time for healing it’s likely he won’t name his eleven until close to kick-off. United will travel on the day.

Of the longer-term casualties, he reported that Cody Cooke has been able to return to some low impact running on a treadmill and that Nashe Sundire is “way ahead of schedule” with his knee re-hab, but that we can’t expect to see the popular midfielder back before February at the earliest.

He said he felt that Callum Dolan and Sunny Blu Lo-Everton are currently improving their fitness because they have been able to have a run of games.

2024/25 Player of the Season Jordan Young will be playing on eggshells for a few weeks now. His late booking on Saturday puts him on 4 for the season. A 5th would trigger a one game suspension, and he needs to keep his nose clean throughout the next four league matches: he will only avoid a ban if he can get to the end of the Worthing game without seeing yellow again.

Centre Forwards

Paul agreed with Guy Henderson that the continued unavailability of Cody Cooke and Louis Dennis’ niggle now puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Sonny Fish:

“(There) is, but that’s what he’s at the club for. The centre forward is the focal point of any team. The plan was always to get him minutes on Wednesday but it came (because of Dennis’ injury) quicker than expected”

“I agree, for a young lad it’s a lot of responsibility but that’s football isn’t it? You get your chance, you take it. That’s the way it works.”

Paul had judged that Fish had run his race with 10 minutes to go and needed to be subbed.

He reiterated that it’s very difficult to recruit a good centre forward mid-season. He said that as a manager he would be extremely reluctant to let one of his own starters or subs go out on loan. In terms of direct replacement for Cody (i.e. a target man”) there is no prospect of getting one ready-made from an academy. A couple of potential loans fell through this week because older players (who tend to be family men) have a strong preference to go on loan close to home, geographically speaking.

Matt Worthington

Understandably, the manager was reluctant to go into huge details about tactics, but he seems to be happy with the way the new captain is going about things. Answering a question from Dave Thomas referencing criticism about the skipper dropping very deep- sometimes between and even behind our centre backs- Paul was clear that he wants him to keep doing this.

He feels it gives us control of the ball and the game. Tellingly, he explained:

“We need the ball, because we haven’t got a target man”

He pointed out that when Worthington does come deep it’s rarely for long- no more than 15 seconds. It allows the full backs to push up, but he doesn’t regard MW as a sitting midfielder. His sees the role more as “a number 8”: a box to box midfielder. Comparisons- in role if not class- were drawn with Rodri at Man Ciry and Martin Zubimendi of Arsenal.

Pressure? What Pressure?

It fell to me to ask about recent criticism, whether he has experienced similar before and how he has been dealing with it. Paul played an extremely straight bat. He said as he has often done before that he doesn’t read social media. He recalled that he has had lots of challenging moments in his career:

“I’ve always come through it, because I’m a strong character. I keep my circle small. I know what I’m doing. I have got full belief in myself, full belief in the squad I’ve assembled, and I don’t let outside noise distract me”