Double-boost for Walsall Wood’s campaign
Walsall Wood have added further quality and competition to their promotion-chasing pack.
Alex Melbourne and James O’Neil are the latest players to sign on the dotted line as Wood look to get their push for Midland League Premier Division glory back on track tomorrow.
Melbourne has checked in from Chasetown and O’Neill from Kidsgrove, and they go straight into the squad for tomorrow’s trip to Long Eaton United.
Their arrivals follow last week’s capture of Dan Westwood and Michael Townsend and mean Wood are now well-stocked for the run-in.
After last Saturday’s FA Vase exit at West Auckland Town, the league is now Wood’s main focus and joint boss Kris Taylor is delighted to have added more competition.
“We have added another two players this week – Alex Melbourne and James O’Neill – and that shows the quality of player we are trying to bring in,” said Taylor.
“It would have been easy to just add ‘numbers’ to the squad, players who wouldn’t feature when everyone is free from suspension and injury.
“But we didn’t want to do that. We want to create competition for places.
“If you are going to win any league then you have to have a squad of 16 to 18 good players.
“The players know that they will have to perform at seven or eight out of 10 to keep their shirt.
“If you have the right type of players, then the competition will drive them on. And we believe we have players with that mentality.
“We also know that we are going to have five very good players on the bench each week, who would probably get in the majority of sides in this league.
“But we will be playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday towards the end of the season and players are going to pick up injuries and suspensions, and maybe suffer a dip in form due to fatigue.”
Wood will kick off tomorrow’s clash sitting seventh in the standings, eight points behind leaders Newark Flowserve but with three games in hand.
But Taylor is confident they have a squad capable of sustaining a title charge.
“We have got to concentrate on the league now after the Vase defeat,” added Taylor.
“All the sides at the top still have to play each other, so they are going to be taking points off each other.
“We are very confident that with the squad we now have, we will be in the mix at the end of the season.”
An added boost for tomorrow’s game is the return of skipper Mitch Tolley following a suspension-enforced absence.
