Bobby Wilkinson Pre-Match Thoughts

Ahead of Wealdstone’s away game at Woking on Saturday, Dec O’Reilly spoke to Bobby Wilkinson to get his thoughts before facing the promotion-chasers.

Any team news? I spoke to Stefan [Brown] last Saturday and said that he may well be back in training this week…

“Yeah Stefan Brown trained tonight [Thursday] for the first time but he’s still a good week away, fitness-wise maybe two weeks. It was really good to have him back on the training park, he’s an unbelievable striker who scores goals for fun when he gets up and going. It’s been a very start and stop season and I feel for him but big credit to him for the way he keeps bouncing back and working hard to try and help us out for the last period of the season.”

I saw a video of Rhys Tyler doing indoor training with Mark [physio], an update on him…

“He’s at least another two weeks away but he’s a lot better. He’s still got a problem with his foot at the moment; we’ve been getting him quite a lot of treatment, looking after him and we are taking it week-by-week at the moment but he’s at least another two weeks [away from returning].”

On Freddie Grant’s progress…

“Freddie Grant has been in the gym tonight training really well. Freddie Grant will be back training within two weeks but he’s still a good four weeks away yet before he can even be in contention [for a return]. Things are looking very very good for him to be back round the boys training with us within 14 days hopefully.”

On Woking’s form and how that is assessed going into this game…

“Well they are such a big club aren’t they? We are the only team in the league to keep a clean sheet against them which I thought was a very good stat and a credit to our boys. We are going to go there as underdogs, we are going to go there and do what we do, give our all, work hard, try and play some good football as we’ve been doing, play with a smile on our faces and see what we can do but we are going there to win. I make that very clear but I understand the challenge ahead of us and I understand how difficult it’s going to be, especially at their place [Kingfield] but our away record at the moment has been first class and can we go there and cause an upset and have a go. As long as we conduct ourselves well and everyone gives 110%, the same old story, then I’ll be happy.”

The pressure Woking have with their games in hand…

“There’s definitely pressure on Woking. Their fans will expect them to win every game as well, there’s nothing wrong with that as pressure means you’re doing well. Something that I’ll make very clear is it’s in our hands how our season ends. Our season can end happy or on a sour note and I make that very clear in the team meeting tonight, we decide how the season ends. We decide how we do against Woking and it’s very key that we know that at the moment.

“I’m not really worried about Woking, they have to handle their own pressure. We’ve got pressure ourselves, we want a good second part of the season and at the moment we’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves in the last four games to get points and we have come out with good points [eight from a possible 12]. I say that to any of the boys and any of my management team, let’s see what pressure we can put on ourselves to enjoy the second part of the season but if we want to have a good second part to the season then we are going to have to turn up every week. At the moment we are all enjoying ourselves because we are turning up and playing well.”

On facing Woking with our 2019 form…

“Well as I said to you a couple weeks back, it’s all about cup finals now and this is just another cup final. Not looking at last week, not looking at the week before, all I’m doing is looking at Woking, trying to get some points against Woking and keeping the momentum going. Eventually we are going to lose and what will be will be but one thing I need my boys to do is keep the momentum [of good performances] going by playing good football, working hard and we will see where we end up. At this precise moment the boys are in a good run of form, they deserve a lot of credit which I said last week and at the moment they are wearing the badge with a lot of pride and I keep saying it. As long as we turn up and give another 110% then I’ll be happy.”

The importance of our away support travelling to Kingfield…

“We are going to need all our supporters to back us because we are going into a very tough place where they are fantastic at home and their crowd get behind them. In any football club your supporters are key right now, especially at this stage of the season. We could be 0-0 with 10-15 minutes to go and their supporters are getting a bit rowdy with them because they aren’t beating us and we need our supporters to back us to try and get a point or go on and get three points. At the moment I keep saying the word togetherness, it’s key right now and we need them [the supporters] to be our 13th man on Saturday and help these boys out the best they can; I have to say they always do. We’ve just got to be together and see where we end up.”