Midfielder leaves City in the mire (From Worcester News)

Midfielder leaves City in the mire

8:30am Monday 22nd March 2010

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Worcester City manager Carl Heeley has admitted that midfielder Ryan Burge went AWOL before the weekend’s match against St Albans.

The Blue Square South clash ended in a 0-0 draw at St George’s Lane after City had laid siege to the Hertfordshire side’s goal for most of the match.

But Heeley was forced to throw new recruit Jason Pike into the mix at the last minute when midfielder Burge, who only joined the club last week from the Glenn Hoddle Academy, failed to turn up.

It was a double blow for the manager after striker Matt Dinsmore missed the game to concentrate on winning a scholarship in the United States.

Heeley said: “With regard to Ryan, I had a deal with the Glenn Hoddle Academy that he comes and plays for us. It’s a two-way thing — he gets games and he helps us out because we are light on numbers.

“He came in last week and put in a very competent display. I don’t know the reasons why but he just failed to turn up. That’s disappointing but until I know the reasons I can’t really comment on that.

“In today’s age there are many ways of contacting people and I didn’t receive a call. I even called his father in the morning and he said he would call me back and I had no call.”

The City boss added: “Matt was unavailable because he went away to do a level one coaching course.

“He didn’t hide it from me but from a Worcester City point of view, and that’s all I’m looking at, I’m disappointed that Matt felt his priorities lay there and I’ve told him that.

“But I can’t drag him here, he’s made his choice and that was his priority.”

Keeper Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton, on loan from Premiership Stoke City, could also face a spell on the sidelines after he hobbled out of Saturday’s stalemate with a thigh injury.

“That was very unfortunate because he’s done really well for us but by the same score we can’t take away the fact that Jake Meredith is a very competent goalkeeper.

“He was just having a bad time,” Heeley said.

“We took him out of the firing line, we’ve worked with him in training, he’s played a reserve game and his confidence is back.

“Although it’s a blow to lose Danzelle, I’ve got absolutely no qualms with having Jake back in the team. He didn’t let us down and he was assured in what he had to do.”

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