Football
Mixed emotions for Town boss

Buy photos » Tyrone Fagan celebrates making it 2-0 on Saturday. Picture by Martin Pulley.

IT has been a mixed couple of weeks for Rugby Town boss Dave Stringer, with success on the pitch offset by the loss of a number of players from his play-off pushing squad.

With six points and six goals - and none conceded - from their last two league games against Aylesbury and Leighton, Town go into the final third of the season with renewed hope of improving on last year’s play-off zone near miss.

However the departure last week of key man Seb Lake-Gaskin along with Craig Reid to Hucknall, in addition to a few injuries has left Stringer in the search of replacements.

He explained: “I thought we played very well against Leighton on Saturday, especially in the second half when we got the ball forward a bit quicker, as we had discussed at half time. It was also good to get another clean sheet on the board.

“Losing Seb is a blow though. He gave us something different with his pace, but we just couldn’t compete with what he was being offered elsewhere.”

Stringer is on the lookout for a new defender after Melvin Gourlay broke his arm in his comeback debut. Gourlay only returned to the club last week but his injury potentially rules him out for the rest of the season.

Stringer said: “It’s difficult to assess at this stage when Melvin will be back, all we can say at the moment is that he will be missing indefinitely.

“We’re definitely hoping to bring in someone as soon as possible, as we already had Nik Preston struggling with a knee injury. We’ve been patching that up on a game-by-game basis and he wouldn’t have been risked against Daventry in the Cup - had the game been played.”

Having been abandoned midway through the second half the week before, the Daventry tie was then postponed on Tuesday evening due to a frozen pitch.

The two sides will now make a third attempt to secure a place in the quarter-finals of the Southern League Cup on Tuesday (at Butlin Road.

Next-up for Town in the league is a trip to 13th placed Chertsey on Saturday.

Valley started their 2011-12 season with a 1-0 home victory over the Surrey side thanks to a late penalty save from Louis Connor.

Connor has also left the club in the last week, moving on to Halesowen. Stringer has acted quickly to replace him in the squad though with the signing of David Bevan.

The 23-year-old Irish born keeper started the season at Daventry before moving onto Hinckley where he held a dual registration with Sutton Coldfield.

Having previously featured for both Aston Villa and Walsall reserve teams, Stringer is looking for the six foot two inch stopper to provide competition to current first choice Pete Smith.

He said: “Dave is a very good keeper and it’s a great signing for us. Of course it provides us with a difficult decision this weekend, as we have had successive clean sheets now.”

Saturday’s opponents Chertsey are definitely a team who have featured in goal packed games so far this season - their first at this level of the non-league pyramid.

They have been on the end of five goal beatings from five teams already - having dished out the same total themselves twice, and were also on the end of a seven-goal thrashing at St. Neots last November.

THE club coach to Chertsey will leave the clubhouse at 11am. For the latest information contact Tony Mann on 07970 691366.

Admission to the rearranged Daventry game (7.45pm) will be half price at £4 for adults and £2 for concessions.