Turning to youth

Whitley Warriors coach Simon Leach turns to youth for saturday’s Northern League clash away to Dundee Stars, but expects to have all his senior players available for the important English National league fixture with Telford Titans at Hillheads on Sunday evening; face-off 6.30pm.

“I will be giving debuts to Under 18 defenders Ben Davison and Josh Maddock, while Nathan Ryder and Jordan Barnes come back into the squad and Liam McAllister will start in goal,” he said.

“We have already qualified for the Northern League Play-Off weekend,” Leach added, “so this is a great opportunity for the younger lads to gain some good senior experience and even thought we will be missing some senior players, there is still a good squad around them to help the lads through the night.”

The Warriors will be without Karl Culley, DJ Good, Dale Howey, Ritchie Thornton and Rob Wilson for the trip to Scotland, but Garry Dowd and David Barrett are both set to return.

“However, all those players will be back in the side for Sunday,” confirmed Leach, “for what is a very important ENL game for us.

“Having lost points last weekend, we know winning all nine remaining fixtures in that league is imperative for us to be successful; and we certainly have a squad that is capable of doing that.

“But we are concentrating on just one game at a time,” he added, “and that means taking care of business at home to Telford before we look at any other game.”

Title rivals Nottingham Lions are at home to Blackburn Hawks tomorrow and Leach will be looking for the Lancashire outfit to upset the league leaders in the same way they upset the Warriors last weekend.

“Blackburn are a good side and can probably beat any side on their day,” he said, “so we will be looking for maybe a little favour and you never know the Lions might be feeling a little pressure themselves.

“We have had big leads in the past and sometimes that can work against you, so if Blackburn show the same work-rate and effort they might just get something form this game as well; we’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the result,” he concluded.

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