HARROGATE RA NEWS
Posted by The Office (office) on Mar 25 2008 at 12:16 PM
News 07 >>

After the bank holiday fixtures Director of Football Peter Coyne had to survey the injury scene before they play again tomorrow at Harrogate Town, injuries already saw the non-selection of Andy Scott, Andy Dawson and through other reasons they also missed Andy Waine, Michael Murray and Ben Manning. On the day saw the withdrawal of Craig Dawson and Griff Jones who could not play and Director of Football Peter Coyne said, “It wasn’t a good start before the game yesterday with a number of players coming in early to see Ronnie including Simon Kelly, Gary Sampson and we were looking for a goalkeeper in the morning with Phil picking up an injury, we had to delay selection of the team until 2.30pm to give Ronnie time. Obviously and credit to them we managed to get those on the pitch but could not with Griff and Craig.”

The Director of Football further added, “All of those players will be in on Tuesday to see Ronnie and we hopefully will have Ben and ‘Wainey’ available, we will just have to see the outcome of the others, it’s another important game and we would like to have everybody available.”

On Monday after being 3-0 down Coyne’s troops amazingly brought it level and then cruelly conceded a penalty 20 seconds from the end of added time, “It was a cruel way to end the game, I have to say I actually thought we deserved nothing from the game and Newcastle as Bamber Bridge did early in the season were much better than us and looked a good footballing side, but you have to give the lads credit they really dug in and showed some character and no one can question their commitment to bring it back to 3-3 it shows the spirit we have in the dressing room at the moment, the sending off of ‘Flynny’ and Simon’s booking which means he will miss two games were down to pure frustration on the day, but it does not help us in our current situation and both will be fined according to the rules.”

Coyne also admitted his side looked tired and weary saying, “The players in fairness were a mile off the pace and we could not even freshen’ it up with 3 substitutions as we only had one. Our last 5-6 games have been very demanding both in fitness and more to the point mentally which affects players just as much and our performances in all of those games were excellent it is how it happens at this level and whilst we have to get on with it, it really is not fair on any non league player, some of our lads were in work in the morning and having played Saturday it shows how silly it is, it is not an excuse as I have said Newcastle were the best footballing side we have played and they were probably not the type of team to play after such a run of games.”

Coyne takes his battled weary troops to Yorkshire for another fixture on Wednesday and it is a game that could bring them nearer to the teams above, “It is one of those games we have in hand and no other fixtures on the day, so if we can put in the type of performance we have shown before Monday and come away with a result it could be a pivotal point in our season, although as we know from our two previous games against Harrogate they are a difficult side to play against, but we will give it our best shot."