Park coach confident he has plenty of strength

Aug 29 2007 by Ron Roby, Liverpool Daily Post

WEST PARK head coach Martin Jones is confident that he has enough strength and depth in his squad to avoid a repeat of last season’s nerve-racking end of season in National Three North.

Park have lost New Zealander Matt Henwood, whose visa has run out, together with ex-Warrington Wolves centre Gareth Davies, who has joined Birkenhead Park.

But Jones said: “We have recruited well over the summer and captured another Kiwi, Aiden Kelly, from the Bay of Plenty.

“He has shown up well in the pre-season preparations including last week with games against Dudley and Llangefni.”

Saturday will see West Park travel to Preston Grasshoppers to kick off their league campaign bent on getting a good start after working so hard over the summer months.

The number of signings has certainly outstripped the small outgoings with the pack strengthened by the arrival of lock Andy Roberts, a former England Under-18 player and Waterloo.

Among the backs, an interesting capture is that of scrum half 18-year-old scrum-half Adam Anderson, who began his club career at Liverpool Collegiate and was educated at the notorious Kirkham GS.

He is almost certain to put a lot of pressure on Darren Webster, who is set to return to red rocks after a spell at Lightfoot Green.

Fergus Owens, a centre has arrived from Orrell who no longer exist, whilst fly half Neale Foster is a cunning capture from neighbours Ruskin Park.

“We had our usual get together over at Chester and also played Northwich , who show a lot of promise for our pre season warm ups. But we cannot wait to get going for real on Saturday,”Jones added.

“Unfortunately we will be without our skipper Stephen Briers who has had surgery on his ankle.”