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Harris hoping to kick start season (
January 07, 2010)
TONY Harris is upbeat about Westfield’s prospects for the second half of the Sussex County Football League season.
The Parishioners are currently eighth in Division Two, but 12 of their remaining 18 matches are scheduled to be on home soil.
Joint manager Harris said: “Duncan (fellow joint boss Duncan Jones) and I have not hidden away from the fact that our target is to beat 60 points which is something as a club we’ve not done.
“With our home form and the games coming up, we think there’s a decent opportunity for us to finish quite strongly. We’ve always been confident there’s a good side waiting to come out.”
Westfield were denied the opportunity to follow up their tremendous Boxing Day victory at Rye United when their match away to Little Common was postponed due to a frozen pitch last weekend.
But Harris doesn’t believe that the momentum built-up from that win will be lost by the time they next take the field, which they hope will be away to Seaford Town on Saturday although this game is in serious doubt following this weeks snow.
“We were obviously keen to continue on what we felt was our good form after Rye,” Harris went on, “but we’re just focusing on each game as it comes. We’re starting to get players coming back to fitness and that makes a big difference to have your senior players available.”
Out of all the cup competitions, the potential fixture backlog facing many clubs shouldn’t be too bad for Westfield, particularly as they’ve played the majority of their away games.
Although the freezing temperatures have made outdoor training pretty much out of the question, Westfield have at least kept ticking over with indoor sessions on Saturday and Tuesday night.
Jones has taken part in these as he recovers from a fractured foot, but is still feeling it when he kicks the ball and is two or three weeks away from a run-out in the reserves.
Another injury absentee of late, David Miller, made his comeback with the seconds on Saturday, while Graham Morris, Kingsley Parsons and Lee Wood are available again after missing the Rye tie. Richard Saunders has returned to the club from Rye.
In terms of the impending move back to their Parish Field home following September’s clubhouse fire, the reserves are due to play there next Saturday (January 16).
It is thought that not everything will be done by then, but at least the changing facilities should be in place. The first team hopes to return by the end of the month.
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