There are two scheduled midweek matches for Ashford teams this week, annoyingly both on Tuesday evening and both away.

The 1^st Team is due to visit Wealdstone but given the notorious state of the home pitch coupled with this morning’s heavy rain, it would be less than wise to bet your house upon the match going ahead.  Hopefully a decision will be made this time to prevent us having to travel if it is postponed for the second time.  As soon as there is any news it will be put on the web site.

If it goes ahead, it will be another very tough game against a team challenging strongly for promotion through the play-offs at the very least and a match that will be given additional spice by the recent transfer of Ashford favourite Adam Logie into the Wealdstone ranks.

Postponements and cup runs have left Wealdstone with a considerable backlog of fixtures and their current league position of eleventh is misleading, given the number of games they have in hand over all the clubs above them, including ourselves.  We hold a solitary one point advantage at present but Wealdstone have a massive five matches in hand, although, as is often said, they have to be won.  Sometimes it is better to have the points in the bag.

If the game goes ahead, Ashford will be in good heart following Saturday’s display at Dartford when the home side secured another three points on their way to the title but it was mighty close as Ashford played some impressive football in the second half and were within a whisker of a point.

As far as the writer is aware there were no new injuries and Ashford continue to be boosted by the recent new blood introduced into the team by manager Jamie Lawrence.  Latest recruit, Jones Awuah, a full international with Ghana only saw a couple of minutes of action on Saturday on his debut but his record suggests he will be another excellent signing for the Club.

Also on Tuesday evening, the Under 18 side is due to make the short trip to play Woking in the Ryman Youth League, kick-off 7.30 p.m.  Ashford recently overcame Woking at home by four goals to two but it is bound to be a difficult encounter as Ashford seek to maintain their position at the top of the table.

Other news is that Reserve Team Manager Wilson Frimpong and his assistant Mark Powell are leaving the Club as Wilson has been offered the Assistant Manager’s role at Leyton FC.  Both came to Ashford in the close season and have done well, keeping the Reserves going with much enthusiasm and often less support than we would like to have given them as a Club.  We wish them every success in the future.  Leaving with them is Enoch Aojepong-Akosah, who will join the recently departed Ike Chukwudum, also now at Leyton.  Neither player was quite able to break into the 1^st Team at Ashford and we thank them both for their efforts for the club.  The same is true of Junior Bushri who left a week or so ago for Northwood.

No formal announcement has been made as yet but it seems likely that Youth Team manager Ben Murray and his worthy assistants, Adam Bessent and Mark Green, will take over the running of the Suburban team which will only serve to accelerate the progress of Under 18 players into senior football, a policy already implemented by Wilson.