TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Paul Wotton’s latest presser

CLUB STATEMENT

This week’s Press Conference was delayed by 24 hours. The Club Statement that dropped at 2.15pm this afternoon probably explains why.

It explained that an internal disciplinary process has been concluded following an incident last week.

As a result, Matt Worthington and Callum Dolan have been sanctioned by the club and will not be available for selection over the next four first-team fixtures.

The statement concluded by saying that there would be no further comment from the club. After confirming that the matter is now closed, the manager gave us no further information, other than to say that as far as he knew Dolan and Worthington will be allowed to train during the period of their suspensions but that he believes they will be excluded from the squad for a week.

There has been a lot of online speculation about whether either or both players is in fact in any fit state to play football at the moment. I cannot shed any light on that, but what is very clear is that this is a huge blow for United as they commence a run of tough-looking league games. Dolan and Worthington’s sanctions will rule them out of Saturday’s home game against Eastbourne, the tough fixtures against in-form Worthing and free-spending Chelmsford plus the visit of Tonbridge on December 6^th.

PLAYER AVAILABILITY

Jordan Young, currently on 4 yellow cards in the League, will only be able to avoid a one match ban if he can keep his nose clean in the next two home games: Wotton explained that if he can get through Tuesday night un-carded he will be clear until/unless he racks up 10 yellows.

There was mixed injury news. The hamstring Gods have smiled on Louis Dennis. He has trained all week, and mercifully will be available for selection tomorrow. But Ed Palmer is the latest victim, and he’s expected to be out for three weeks.

Sam Dreyer will skipper the team tomorrow: Wotton said he has matured as a footballer and a person since joining the club last Summer.

The club finds itself in a very difficult situation. Having been hit hard by injuries, the new unavailability’s are clearly self-inflicted. Clearly we may never discover the truth of what has gone on between the club captain and our vibrant number 10. It will be important for them and their team-mates that they find a way to put this behind them and get back to contributing on the pitch.

NEW ARRIVALS

The suspension of Worthington and Dolan put the manager’s comments earlier this week about trying to get a couple of players through the door into context.

As always, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. Paul reported that he is very hopeful that one loanee should be available tomorrow (this is rumoured to be a youngster from the North West). We’ve been let down by another player who apparently turned down a similar sojourn on the English Riviera earlier today, but there is another iron in the fire.

It’s not ideal.

But as the Manager said, it has to be:

“One foot in front of the other, and we press on.”

At 6 o’clock this morning, England were definitely headed for a 5-0 defeat in Australia. Four hours later, we had the Aussies 9 wickets down for sod all and we were all raving about the most exciting day’s cricket for years. Sometimes, the darkest hour is just before dawn!