From The Dugout | Prestwich Heys (H)
These are Lee Rick’s programme notes from our FA Vase second round tie against Prestwich Heys. You can buy a copy on the gate for £2. Read the full match preview here.
Good afternoon and welcome to Brookburn Road for today’s FA Vase tie against Prestwich Heys.
I would like to welcome the supporters, players and volunteers from Heys and I hope you have a safe journey back to North Manchester after the match.
We were disappointed that Tuesday’s Midland Cup trip to Northwich Victoria was postponed.
The match would have given us a good opportunity to get back to winning ways and put right the things that went wrong against Wolverhampton City last weekend.
It was a disappointing result against Wolverhampton City and the performance wasn’t good enough, but once again we’re left scratching our heads at how we’ve conceded 2 goals from the only 2 shots we faced all game.
We had so many entries into their final third but it’s becoming a familiar theme that we’re not converting these opportunities into goals. We made some changes to the lineup and welcomed Joao Soares to the club. Joao is somebody who will add a lot of energy and quality to our midfield and he’s just the type of player we need at the moment.
We also brought James Hodges into the lineup in goal after Bayleigh Passant was ruled out through concussion. We’re fortunate to have had someone of James’ quality who we could call upon and it was good to see him making his first start of the season after joining in the Summer.
Today is another big match in our season and while the league remains our priority, the Vase is a big competition and one we want to do really well in. The ambition is to go as far as we can in the competition and build upon the memories the club has made in this competition over recent years. For us to do that, we’ll need to get past some tough opposition today. West fans will have plenty of memories from playing Heys over the years and both sides will be really up for today’s match. Heys are coming into the match in great form, winning their last 6 matches. We’ll need to be at our best to get through to the next round.
Thank you for your brilliant support against Wolverhampton City last weekend. It was amazing to see so many people supporting the team in horrible weather and your support definitely deserved a better result. Hopefully there’ll be another great atmosphere here today and we’ll have plenty to cheer about come 5pm.
Thank you for your support and enjoy the match. Come on West!
Lee Rick