Sidbury United boss Jeremy Schofield went into this midweek’s training session still unsure as to what his team would look like for the season-opening Fresha League top flight game at Bow AC.

The Byes Lane chief was forced to call off a recent pre-season friendly as he did not have enough fit players and, prior to that midweek session, he was confident of 12 of his match day squad buy there was every likely hood that two of the three newcomers he had at the session would, be signed up and on the way to Bow with the team!

Schofield says: “It is an old footballing cliché, but we’ve had an ongoing mare with the injuries. If I’d been asked at the final whistle last season as to what my ambition was for the team this year I’d have wasted no time in saying that we were going to have a real crack at the title. Three months on and I am realistic enough to know that that really is simply not possible given the horrendous run of injuries. It’s now more a case of taking the season in sections and we’ll assess how things are after ten games.”

One big concern for Schofield is central midfield where he has lost the services of the two lynchpins fro the engine room last season, Charlie Cox and Tom Mathews. Cox sees a specialist at hospital early next week when it is feared that he might discover his season is over before it started while Matthews has been lured back to Exmouth Amateurs.

Schofield says: “Charlie (Cox) is so unfortunate. I feel for the lad as it seems he may have a cruciate problem and that would mean his season is done all ready. Tom (Matthews) is a different case. He’s an Exmouth lad and so a switch to Ammies is the natural one. Of course we are going to miss him – big time! He and Charlie made the side tick fro the central midfield berths and replacing them, while not impossible, is going to be very hard.”

One switch forced upon the United chief is to break up last season’s very impressive back four with Dan McCann having to move into a midfield slot. That means skipper Sam Seldon will be partnered by Glen Salter in central defence.

One thing that might have eased the staff woes at Byes lane would have been the advent of a Reserve team. There had been talks towards the end of last season, but nothing materialised.

Schofield says: “I do regret that we do not have the back-up of a Reserve team and it is something that is vey much on the Byes Lane agenda for the very near future. One issue with any back up team is getting the right manager and that is something I am currently working on and towards. Ideally we will have a manager and a reserve team in place for next season. It would certainly make life easier in terms of squad building for, having just the one team, as we do at present, makes it tough trying to keep everyone in the squad happy as I can only use 14 or 15 each match day.”

The opening game offers United the chance for a little ‘pay-back’, something Schofield explained saying: “last year they (Bow) did the double over us including taking away our then long and proud unbeaten home record. It would be nice to give them a little bit of their own medicine on Saturday afternoon.”

One positive for Schofield going into the new term is the return to regular action of striker Danny Green. Schofield explains saying: “Danny (Green) played the first half of last season and then went off on his travels. He made a short cameo appearance in the pre-season friendly with Sidmouth Town and left us itching to see more of him. It’s great for us that he’s back this season and bale to give us a whole campaign. His presence could be very significant for us.”