Fringe players to get City chance (From Worcester News)

Fringe players to get City chance

9:30am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Sport

WORCESTER City boss Carl Heeley will use tonight’s Worcestershire FA Senior Cup quarter-final clash at Redditch United (7.45pm) to give valuable game-time to his fringe players.

The St George’s Lane side’s manager has kept faith with the majority of his first-choice players this season as they have performed well to boost the club to the verge of the Blue Square Bet North play-off places.

However, a consequence of this consistent selection policy is several squad members have been left kicking their heels on the sidelines, but they will be given a chance to shine tonight against the Reds, who are 12th in the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division — one level below City.

Although Heeley is happy to rotate his squad against Redditch, he is still looking for the club to bounce back at the first opportunity from Saturday’s last-gasp FA Cup exit at Bromley.

Richard Pacquette’s 90th minute winner sent City tumbling out of the famous competition and robbed them of the chance to try and pocket the £12,500 prize money on offer.

As the City chief searches for the solution to his late let-downs, Heeley has vowed to give squad players their opportunity to stake a claim for league starts in their clash at the Valley Stadium.

He said: “The boys who need minutes will get an opportunity at Redditch.

“We keep talking about our strong squad, so all of the boys who didn’t start at Bromley will play and they will get an opportunity to stake a claim to start more games.

“Every time I see the boys it is a shop window and I want to see something that gives me belief that they are better than somebody else in there. If that is the case, they’ll play.”

The match should see a return to action for goalkeeper Matt Sargeant and defender Lee Ayres, who Heeley said were both “gutted” to be left out on Saturday after starting recent matches.

On their omission, the City chief added: “To leave Matt and Lee out was incredibly tough, they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong and I feel sorry for them, but I went for that little bit of experience and I didn’t think those decisions affected the outcome of the game.

“To be fair, from what Bromley did, I think I could have played in goal.”

The winner of tonight’s contest will face a semi-final trip to Aggborough to face Kidderminster Harriers, while Stourbridge and Evesham also face-off in the last-four.