MALVERN Town are set to be boosted by the return of a number of their front line players when they take on Bustleholme in the West Midlands Regional League at the Langland Stadium tonight (Wednesday, 7.45).
A series of suspensions, injuries, work commitments and even the birth of a baby boy has left manager Les Jones short of numbers in recent weeks.
Despite claiming a 2-1 victory over West Midlands Police to reach the semi-final of the Smedley Crooke Cup last week, Town have suffered back-to-back league defeats, including a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Wolverhampton Casuals.
However, Jones said he was likely to have several players back for their clash against Bustleholme, including skipper Joe Endacott and Chris Allen whose wife gave birth last Thursday.
“We have had a mixed bag of results in recent weeks, but that has been due to a lot of absentees,” he said. “Joe Leighton is still out, but Chris Parker and Reece King will be back.
“We have also had a couple of unavailabilities due to work commitments who will be back available, so that’s another boost.
“We have probably had two or three players missing in each game and they have all been defenders. But hopefully we will be able to put a decent side out on Wednesday and at this level it is about what you have got on the bench to change the game, which will be important against Bustleholme.”
And Jones is confident his side will bounce back from their heavy defeat at Wolverhampton as they look to climb back up the table with wins over Bustleholme and Shifnal Town.
“It is really important for us now to get two positive results and I am expecting us to perform well,” he added. “We put in a good showing in the second half on Saturday, so hopefully we can build on that in these two games.
“They are teams who are in and around us in the league, so if we win those then that will push us up the table.”