Linby rocked by injuries

A spate of pre-season injuries forced Linby CW to cancel their pre-season friendly with Teversal last weekend.
Lewis Saxby - Linby boss.Lewis Saxby - Linby boss.
Lewis Saxby - Linby boss.

But the club said this week that home games against Bilsthorpe (last night, Thursday) and Arnold Town (Saturday) would go ahead.

It has made it a trying time for new Linby boss Lewis Saxby, though he said the depleted first team squad had at least given him chance to run the rule over some of the club’s youngsters.

“It’s not been an easy time, “ he said. “We have had seven or eight out injured and another seven or eight away with holidays and the like.

“Of the injuries, a few are muscles and a couple of impact injuries.

“To have put out any sort of squad last weekend wouldn’t have been good for us or Teversal. It wasn’t viable.

“But that extra week’s rest has helped a few out and they should be back this weekend.

“We have not yet had a full squad in pre-season, but, although we’ll have a couple still missing, this weekend should be more realistic to see where we are.

“I think we will be competitive. I don’t think we’ll be challenging at the top end, but I don’t think we’ll be in trouble either.

“We would probably be happy with mid-table and if we can get into the top half or top seven or eight I think we’d be above where we thought we would be realistically.”

Saxby continued: “We have already brought in 12/14 new players, have another couple of trialists in we’re looking to sign and there are couple of others from Mansfield Town’s development squad.

“There has been a big turn-around here with only about six of last season’s squad still here. They will need time to gel – it won’t just happen overnight. And they are also going to be playing a different style of football.

“But it has given us a few options as we’ve been able to have a nice look at a few U18s, lads of 16 and 17. So at least we know we’ve got some coming through the ranks and they have done all right.

“None of our pre-season fixtures have been easy, which is how we set them up on purpose. They have all been against top sides from our division or higher.”

CML North rivals Hucknall Town beat visiting Lutterworth Town 2-1 in their latest friendly with goals from Joe Ashurst and Adam Nelson.