Bobby Wilkinson’s Pre-Match Thoughts
Ahead of the Stones playing Bath City on Remembrance weekend, Sam Watts got the pre-match views of manager Bobby Wilkinson.
Bobby briefly mentioned the positive nature of the midweek cup clash with Uxbridge…
Everyone has come through the game 100% fine, Tuesday night was all about the youngsters. It was a special night for them and a special night for the football club, credit to everyone.
The latest injury update…
Connor Stevens won’t make Saturday. He will be 50/50 for Tuesday.
Jerome [Okimo] is training tonight so he will try to be back in the squad straight away because he is a great miss when he’s not around.
Matt Lench is still 3 or 4 weeks away.
Stefan Brown is still 6 weeks away. It’s all about whether we can get our captain back.
He talked about Remembrance weekend and the kit the players will wear…
Everyone at the football club wants to show their respects. My players and management team will wear that kit. It’s a special kit and it’s a very honourable thing we are doing for all these wonderful people.
Whether he looks forward to 3 league games in a week…
We love it and we relish the challenge and every single game. It’s a wonderful league at the moment and a wonderful advert for non-league.
How tight it is between the two clubs and the fact Stones have same points tally…
It’s a tough game for both clubs and it will be a battle. They are above us so we want to go above them. We will have to turn up and we have got to be prepared to try to win another really hard game.
Bobby told of the importance of being unbeaten and getting a point in games that could be lost…
The biggest key here is if you can’t win the game, don’t lose it. The point at Welling was a massive point. We have a game-plan for Saturday, we will hopefully try to make that work. The management team are working extremely hard behind the scenes to have these game-plans. So far so good, because we are competing against the teams that are in the top half of the table.
The financial restrictions and how the management staff have dealt with that…
We don’t make any signings without the board’s permission. The board decide who we sign and who we don’t sign. We are getting it right on the pitch, I trust the board to get it right off the pitch.
He was clear on the sudden inclusion of Sam Cox into the squad…
Sam Cox has to come into the squad, that’s not my choice. He was on the transfer list ready to go and play elsewhere. He will become part of the squad because the board has made that choice.
