Football Season Guide

Were poor last season, finishing eleventh in the table. Injuries, a loss of motivation (after it was rumoured Sutton/Wootton would be leaving), and a lack of a goal threat saw them fail in a big way. Their energy levels never dropped but they just didn't have the quality nor the experience. This season they're in for another tough test. They've really had to scrabble around to find new recruits that don't cost much. Injury-prone midfielder Najjarine has joined, as has NPL FB Edwards. Unwanted wide players Armiento and Mileusnic (also injury-prone) joined too. It's not enough to get tongues wagging. The only good business they did was to sign Nigerian attacker Eze. It makes all that time they lost on trying to keep Barbarouses seem pointless; the latter struggled last season. The bad outweighs the good though - defensive lynchpin Wootton moved on, as did LB Sutton. This was a limited group of players before those departures too, let alone now. Again, they're going to have to turn their hands to younger players coming through, and pray they get lucky. They lack nothing when it comes to energy, work-rate, and motivation but they do lack quality. It's really difficult to envision where the goals will come from other than Eze unless Sloane-Rodrigues suddenly stays fit and turns it on, or Supyk steps up. Their defence looks vulnerable at CB, although they do have a very good goalkeeper in Albert Kelly-Heald. They're short of FB/WB options (may need Armiento and Sloane-Rodrigues there at times), and they're short of players that can finish on a regular basis. It's hard to imagine their season going well, especially if the injuries to Rufer and Piper keep them out longer than expected (although both should be back in time for their season opener).