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Signings  With the exception of Anthony Joseph (Bromley) and Paul Burgess (holiday), just about every regular 1st team player from last season has now signed on for the new campaign.
Three new players signed on Saturday, namely Billy Jeffreys, a tall, commanding central defender who has come to us after being released by Millwall, who spoke to the Offical Website yesterday evening (see below). Also committed to the Ashford cause are Francis Luke, a speedy midfielder who lists both Dagenham & Redbridge and Sutton United amongst his previous clubs and Gareth Teuten who was with the Staines Academy side and who impressed in the reserve match yesterday against Bracknell. Also now signed on Ryman forms are promising Under-18 players Danny Byron and Nick Hardy, with doubtless more to follow. Procedural Changes The Ryman League is introducing two significant changes of procedure next season. One is that instead of simply phoning in the result at the end of the match, home clubs will now be required to text in every time a goal is scored, naming both the scorer and the time of the goal. We are awaiting definitive instructions but if there is anyone out there, committee person or otherwise, who would be prepared to take on this task, please make yourself known. Also, towards the end of both the first half and full-time, the appropriate sub board will have to be held up to show how many minutes is being added on at the end of each half.
Billy Jeffreys speaks! After the first team squad returned from The Homelands, we caught up with new signing Billy Jeffreys and asked him how he was finding life at Short Lane after two wins and a goal in his first two games: "I'm loving it. I'm loving every minute of it and I can't wait to play on Tuesday, if selected. I'm looking forward to the season ahead." The central defender was enthusiastic about the team's style of play, adding "I like to play football, in the right areas, at the right times. It's not all willy-nilly passing stuff, but we play in the right areas of the pitch, which is good". Having been released by Millwall, Billy was obviously in demand and we asked what had made choose the Tangerines: "I've had a lot of clubs in this league interested in me, and some above. But I'm a local lad, so Ashford's easy to get to, I like the way they play and I like the way I've been treated here as well." We then asked Billy if he had any targets for the new season and he revealed a genuine optimism for the campaign ahead: "I'll take each game as it comes, but I've played two games now and I think the squad could get promoted, if not automatically maybe, then through the play-offs". We ended by asking Billy to talk us through his goal: "The corner's come in, it was manic in the penalty area. The 'keeper's come up and missed it and I was in the right place at the right time." A warm welcome to the club goes to Billy and all of our new signings as the build up to the new season continues. |
Monday, 06 February 2012
