Chelmsford City head coach Glenn Pennyfather has been “wrapping players up in cotton wool” ahead of their visit to Hertfordshire-based St Albans City this Saturday.
This comes after a handful picked-up either illness or minor knocks during the course of the last week.
Pennyfather, whose side have lost just two games in the last thirteen and moved up to fifth on Tuesday night with a win at Welling United, has seen illness affect City’s fortunes before and was keen to ensure the ravages of a virus didn’t take hold again.
He said: “We’ve had to have a reduced training session due to the amount of players we have who are ill or carrying knocks. We’re in negotiations with a player at the moment and I’m doing my best to bring him in for Saturday although there’s not much time.”
Victory at Clarence Park could lift City into third place in what is becoming a tight top half bar the gap behind runaway leaders Newport County. Pennyfather claims, however, not to have his sights set on any particular placing just yet, adding: “Third would be nice but we obviously want to be as high as possible so I’d prefer to be first! There’s no use looking at the table at this stage. We’re focussing on the fact we’re playing well away from home and, although St Alban’s had a good result against Basingstoke Town in midweek, we put an end to Welling’s run so we’re full of confidence going into the game.”
Transfer-listed goalkeeper Craig Holloway is unlikely to feature once more as “a few enquiries have been made but nothing has been agreed.” Elsewhere, Chelmsford’s management team will leave it until as late as possible to finalise their side based on the condition of each individual. One extra option, however, is goalkeeper Chris Elad, who featured for the Clarets in pre-season and has signed Blue Square South forms. Elad’s most recent playing experience has been with Witham Town.
St Albans will be no pushovers for the Clarets at the weekend, having defeated high-flying Basingstoke on Tuesday night , although this was immediately preceded by a 2-0 loss at Bromley and a 6-0 hammering they will want to forget in the FA Trophy at Woking. However, having lost just three of their ten home games means they sit in mid-table, six points behind Chelmsford having played a game less.
