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Now it's up to the striking quartet

From the Bridgwater Mercury, first published Tuesday 15th Jan 2008.

THE return of on-loan Anthony Mason to Plymouth Argyle at the weekend leaves Bridgwater Town looking for goals from their four full-time strikers.

Nat Pepperell, Ryan King, Mike Mackay and Lewis Irish are the quartet and only Pepperell has contributed significantly as a goal-scorer this season, with 13, four of them penalties.

However, co-managers Craig Laird and Paul Rich have no plans to bring in any more strikers on loan.

"Mason was good for us, as was Tom Clarke when he was on loan from Yeovil, but our four strikers are all now fit and we aim to give them the chance to show what they can do," said Laird.

Mackay would have missed Saturday's match at Uxbridge had it not been postponed. The former Bristol City player, whose season has been bedevilled by hamstring and back problems, injured a hip in training.

Fortunately, it has nothing to do with his previous injuries. Laird said: "I've told Mike that he must expect niggles and knocks as he gets back into playing regularly. We haven't seen the best of him yet this season, but I'm confident that we will."

Ex-Swansea City forward Pepperell would have returned to the side at Uxbridge, having been on the bench for the previous two matches. Laird said of the other two strikers: "Ryan has been struggling this season because he hasn't been able to get himself fit through injury and illness. But he was our leading scorer for the previous two seasons and he'll come again.

"When Lewis came to us, he was lacking fitness, but now that he has been training regularly with us for several weeks, he is getting there. His signing gave us four good strikers, which is the situation I like, because, whether we play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, we need a striker on the bench."

At home to Windsor & Eton on Saturday (3pm), Town hope to start the sort of long, unbeaten run which swept them to promotion last season.

"We knew that we would have a hiccup at some stage of the season and ours has arrived lately," said Laird. "The fact that it has come in mid-season means that it hasn't affected us that much, because we are still well in the running for the promotion play-offs."

He went on: "The fact that we beat such a good side as Farnborough shows that we can compete with the best in the division. But we're not dwelling on that, because it only brought three points. We have games to come against some of the struggling sides and must make sure that we take full points from them.

Town are sixth, two points off fifth place, the final play-off spot. Saturday's opponents Windsor & Eton beat them 2-0 at home in the FA Trophy then Town drew 2-2 there 11 days later.

After Saturday, Town are away to mid-table Gosport Borough (Jan 26), away to leaders Fleet (Jan 29), home to second-placed Oxford City (Feb 2) and home to Godalming Town, another mid-table side (Feb 9).

Saturday's postponed match at Uxbridge has been re-arranged for Tuesday, February 26. It was called off early on Saturday morning and the Town players trained instead, with a practice match between first team and reserves on the Bridgwater College all-weather pitch.

Defender Dean Coppard, who was taken ill before the 2-0 defeat at Hillingdon on the Saturday before last, was still unwell last week and would not have played at Uxbridge.

With Matt Pitcher still waiting to see a specialist about his knee injury, Town need all their other centre-backs available for a tough run of fixtures.

Midfielder John Harris has quit Fairfax Park to return to his former club Watchet Town in the Somerset County League first division.

Laird commented: "It's a hard decision to understand. He has always wanted to be in our first-team squad and he fulfilled that ambition this season. We spoke to him in depth about it, but he didn't like being on the bench and wanted to play first-team football.

"I can't see him being happy at Somerset League first-division level, even if it is first-team football. It's a great shame, because he made a lot of progress during his time with us."

Lack of first-team opportunities was also the reason that Aaron Deeks left Town for Toolstation League first-division strugglers Minehead last month.

TOWN Reserves' Somerset Senior Cup tie against Keynsham Reserves was postponed on Saturday for the second week running. It has been re-arranged for Wednesday, 7.45pm and if the pitch is still unfit then, the game will be on Tuesday, January 22.

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