Stones boosted by return of internationals for crunch Oxford City game

David Noble feels the return of his quartet of internationals will energise his team for the Easter Bank Holiday fixtures.

Nathan Ferguson (Guyana), Alex Dyer (Montserrat), Dillon De Silva (Sri Lanka) and Tarryn Allarakhia (Tanzania) all returned to the club from international duty this week after missing games against Bromley and Altrincham. They will go straight into the squad for the Good Friday game at Oxford City, kick-off 3pm.

"I'm delighted they are back," said Noble. "We have some aching bodies in the squad and those four players will give the squad a massive lift. They are four of our main players and anyone would miss four of their main and most creative players. 

"It was massive for the boys and the club for them to get international recognition. That shows you we must be doing something right here in terms of recruitment and development. Obviously the timing could have been better, especially giving how that Bromley game was rescheduled as we didn't see that coming but it's a great achievement for them."

On Oxford already being relegated:

"It's a difficult one as I still think it's a very dangerous fixture. The pressure is off for them and any player worth his salt should be playing for something, whether it's pride, a new contract of a move, even when they are relegated. So we need to be careful of a wounded animal."

On how Oxford have progressed since they beat his St Albans side in last season's National South play-off final:

"The nucleus is still there, they've added a few and they play a slightly different formation. But on the whole the philosophy and the principles are the same. That defeat to them in the play-off final did hurt me. It was a sore one and probably my saddest day as a manager. But this game is totally different and I don't want to win this game any more because of that defeat. I want to win every game  – and I want to win this game for Wealdstone."

*Pictures by Jon Taffel