DAN BATEMAN says the future is looking bright for Wokingham and Emmbrook as he begins to lay out plans for next season.
Despite only being in February, Sumas have just four league games remaining in Hellenic Division One East following last week’s 2-0 defeat at Chinnor.
With promotion out of reach, eyes are already looking six months into the future ahead of the 2018/19 campaign with Bateman keen to run his eye over the club’s talented youngsters.
Josh Harris is the current leading light with the 16-year-old marking his first team debut with a goal and an assist in victory over Didcot Town Reserves earlier this month and he played the full 90 minutes again at Chinnor.
And Bateman says Harris is just one of a number of bright young stars within the Sumas system.
“Josh is the first of the under-16s to turn 16 and there’s plenty more of them coming through,” Bateman told The Wokingham Paper.
“It’s a really positive sign for us.
“Josh has been getting rave reviews in the reserves.
“He got his opportunity for me against Didcot and he did really well.
“To be honest, Chinnor wasn’t the sort of game that I wanted him to play because I knew what would happen, but availability (of others) meant I had to give him a chance.
“He was probably our best player on the day again.
“He never shied away from the physical side of the game, he always wanted the ball, he got singled out a little bit for some treatment by them and he stood up to it.
“So it was a really good learning curve for him and he’s just going to get stronger and stronger.”
Arguably Wokingham’s biggest focus between now and the end of the season will be the Reading Senior Cup, with a clash against Highmoor-Ibis due to be rearranged after being postponed on last Monday.
Sumas have just had a weekend off with their four remaining matches spread out between early March and the end of April.
That means the Wokingham boss will spend much of his time watching the club’s reserve side in the Thames Valley League as he tries to shape his squad to mount an assault on promotion next term.
“We’ve got four games left but I think the reserves have got eight or nine games left,” said Bateman.
“Most of them are at home so between the two teams we’re going to be looking to throw a lot of the youngsters in – the U16s, U17s, U18s and have a look and see what we have got coming through for next season.
“The club is in a really good position at the moment that we can actually start to build now.
“We’re not going to wait until July and then start to plan for next year, we’re going to start now.”
He added: “It would be nice to have a run in the Reading Senior Cup, just to prolong the season a little bit.
“If we turn up on our day, I’d put us against anybody from the league above.
“We need to make sure that we turn up with the right attitude now. The challenge for us is going to be keeping everybody sharp and fit.”
