Market Drayton Town’s new boss, Neil Woolliscroft, meets his squad at the club’s presentation evening tonight pledging they will have a chance to win team, as well as individual awards, under his new regime.

“My first task is to reassure them that they will all have a chance to prove themselves with me,” says Woolliscroft, who steered Hodnet to a County League Cup final victory over Haughmond on Saturday.

“Obviously the arrival of a new manager can cause concerns in some minds. But I am a winner and I want them to know that this club is too.
“As a new man I obviously have new options in mind - but I am looking forward to working with the existing squad.

“I think I’ve a great off-pitch team to back them in my assistant, Darren Williams, who has played at a good level, coach Mick Murphy who I am delighted to say is staying on and consultant physio Pete Dugmore.

“I am particularly pleased Pete will be helping us. We have worked together before and he now works on rehabilitating our service personnel injured in Afghanistan.”

Woolliscroft, a top ranked sales executive away from football, says his appointment to take over after the surprise sacking of manager Simon Line and assistant Delwyn Humphreys, is a dream job.

“I almost joined the club five years ago as coach, but could not afford to give it the commitment,” he admits.

That doesn’t mean the former Manchester City junior is under any illusions about the task at hand.

“There’s a rough road ahead – it certainly will not be a walk in the park,” he said.

“Thanks to my predecessors, and the tremendous amount of work so many people do here behind the scenes, I’ve been handed a wonderful platform to build on.

“Given my links with local football, there’s obviously been talk of more young players coming to the club.

“I hope to help make that happen for the future. There are some very talented youngsters coming through local clubs and I would love to see some of them in a Drayton shirt.

“But that’s for the future and right now I need the men to finish in the top half of the league and perhaps put together a couple of good cup runs to help generate a lot more support.”

He might need a bit of luck for that lot – but it would take a brave man to gamble big against a guy whose track record is all about backing winners – and he’s off to Las Vegas later this year for a worldwide business conference.

By Terry Morris