Hellenic Rees full of confidence for Thornbury’s Vase away-day
JASON Rees believes his Thornbury Town team are in the mood to extend their stay in this season’s Buildbase FA Vase competition.
Rees takes his Hellenic Division One West high-fliers into Wiltshire tomorrow for a first round proper tie against Downton, who have made a bright start to the season and lie in the upper reaches of Division One of the Sydenhams Wessex League.
“We sent my assistant Gary Kemp down to watch them at the weekend play away at their league leaders, Hythe & Dibden,” said the Mundy Fields manager.
“Downton lost 4-2 for only their second defeat of the season, so at least we know they are beatable, and we’re on a good run, too.”
Thornbury have already overcome Cheltenham Saracens (6-2) and Wokingham & Emmbrook (1-0) in the Vase, while last Saturday’s 8-1 home mauling of New College Swindon was their fifth straight league victory.
The win lifted them to third place, level on points with Hereford Pegasus and leaders Malmesbury Victoria.
“New College are so young and naïve and they have continued to suffer some heavy defeats,” said Rees. “But we treated the match with the utmost seriousness because you hear about teams in these same parlous positions getting new players in to bolster them. “You feel that at some stage they will surprise someone, and we didn’t want that to be us.
“In fact, it was a great seven days when you take into account our wins against two good Hereford teams,” added Rees, who is hopeful defender Joe Guest and keeper Kurtis Parkin will be available for tomorrow’s game after illness and injury respectively.
Tytherington Rocks, meanwhile, will no doubt prepare themselves in the same cautious manner as they travel to take on New College seeking only a second win of the season.
“Three points is what it’s all about for me rather than how many goals we can score,” said Rocks boss Tim Minihane.
“I’m confident we’ll create chances, as we have done over most of the season, but I do know they’re a very young and determined team who like to attack down the flanks.
“I also had the misfortune of losing to them twice last season, so I’m certainly not taking anything for granted.”
Minihane and his men at least enter the contest lifted by last Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Moreton Rangers, which won them their fourth point of the campaign.
“With no assistant manager now, I ended up being manager, assistant and linesman for that one!” said Minihane.
“Thankfully, our ladies manager James Eveleigh helped run the dugout, but the players were a bit down afterwards as they had started brilliantly, creating numerous chances, including one our captain Nathan Croot scored with his head from a set-piece.
“It was just frustrating Moreton equalised with their first real shot around 35 minutes in with a 25-yard screamer into the top corner. The main thing is we stopped the rot.”
» Anyone wishing to team up with Minihane as his number two can contact him at timminihane@ yahoo.co.uk.