Jon Laugharne is set to name a much-changed Woodley United side for tonight’s Hellenic Division One Subsidiary Cup clash against Holyport.
The Kestrels are in a fine run of form, losing just one of their last seven with their latest success coming in Saturday’s thrilling 3-2 win over neighbours Wokingham and Emmbrook.
Woodley scored at each end of the first half at the Rivermoor through Chace Jewell and Sam Guze, either side of a brilliant Ellis Day strike.
The Sumas equalised again after the restart when Josh Harris fired in, but there was time for a late twist when substitute Teddy Thomas netted in stoppage time to earn three more points.
But Laugharne will be without many of the players who contributed to Saturday’s impressive win for tonight’s cup group game.
“We’re using this cup really to see players and get people back to fitness,” the Woodley boss told The Wokingham Paper.
“It’s a shame because we would’ve liked to have taken it a little bit more seriously than what we have but for us as a team, as a squad, we have taken it seriously because we’ve given players more game time.
“We’ve got a load missing Monday night but I’d rather they were missing Monday in this Subsidiary Cup than they are for Saturday when we’ve got a cup game against Pewsey Vale.
“It’s peaks and troughs, it is what it is, we have only got a small squad but we’re getting there and that’s the way it is. We’re playing a good Holyport team though, they’re decent from what I understand.”
He added: “We’re not resting anyone (on Monday), it’s literally unavailability.
“It’s work. If you’ve got the choice to play Saturday or play Monday, we’re going to think we’re in this Subsidiary Cup, do you know what, we’ve only got two games left, we’re pretty much out of it so miss the Monday game to play Saturday and we’ll see where we go from there rather than throw everything into Monday because Holyport are decent as well, they’re good.
“We’ll have to see how it goes but we’ll just use that Subsidiary Cup as a chance for people that have not been playing to get some minutes in and go from there.”
Woodley currently sit bottom of their four-team group with three points from four matches while Holyport are top on seven points. Kick-off tonight is 7.45pm.
