Ahead of the visit of Welling United this weekend, Mark Cooper confirmed that Olly Thomas had returned to Huish Park after his injury.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah, Cooper said: “Olly Thomas is back. He’s back on the grass, his first day back training with us. We’re going to assess his fitness in terms of game time and whether he’s ready to take part.”
Whilst Thomas might not be ready for Saturday, Cooper said his side came out unscathed from two matches in 48 hours. “There was a handful of players that we couldn’t risk on Monday night, coming back from injury or data. They way we’ve looked at it we’ve got everybody through, no fresh injury concerns, we’ve got a point on the road and we’ve got everybody fresh going into Saturday.”
Last time the Glovers faced Welling, they were on the end of a 4-1 defeat and a Tristan Abrahams hattrick. Since then, there’s a been a bit of change at the Wings. Danny Bloor, the manager at the time, left at the end of January and was replaced by Rod Stringer. Since then, they’ve had some good results, including wins against Hampton & Richmond, Worthing and draws at Braintree and St Albans.
“I think they were nine unbeaten before the other night (1-0 loss at Farnborough) and they’ve played some big teams in that. So Rod, the manager, has gone in there and done remarkably well in a short space of time, they’ve added some players and they’ve been difficult to beat. So, we’re expecting, again, another tough game and like they’ve said it’s another free hit for them.”
With the back pages shouting about ‘five more wins’, Cooper stuck to message he has all season about the title hopes.
“We just concentrate on what we can affect, which is Saturday. If we get the right result on Saturday then we’re three points closer, that’s the only way you can look at it. And anybody who tells you different is kidding themselves in my opinion. Of course supporters are going to excited and carried away, and so they should, that’s what its about. But us, professionally, we have to just focus on Saturday and concentrate on getting three points.”
The manager provided an update on Jake Hyde and Rhys Murphy, indicating that we were more likely to see Murphy before the end of the season than Hyde who has “been at St Georges Park having some rehab work and they’ve added a couple of weeks on to his injury period of how long he’s going to be out.”