Town in seventh Heaven as highly-rated defender joins

FOOTBALL

BOSS Tommy Wright believes Stratford Town could have a star in the making after signing highly-rated defender George Heaven.

The 19-year-old centre-back, who turns 20 on 30th September, has previously had trials at Premier League champions Manchester City and League One side Ipswich Town, and was recently part of the Leicester City U23s squad before being released by the Foxes after failing to break into the first-team.

The 6ft 2ins ace also had trials with Barnsley in April and West Ham in July, but has now agreed terms to make the move to the Arden Garages Stadium and will be available for selection for Town’s trip to Halesowen Town in the FA Cup second qualifying round on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Speaking about his latest addition, Wright told the Herald: “We could have a real gem on our hands if George, who is a quality, young footballer, adapts well to non-league football.

"However, it’s all down to him now and how he handles this level of football.

"He’s got good pedigree, he’s a great lad and is keen to learn.

“George has got the right agent looking after him too in George Blatherwick, who played lots of games in the Football League. Heaven has got all the tools there to progress if he adapts himself well.”

When asked if further additions could be on the cards, the Town boss added: “We won’t stop looking because you’re always one call away from knowing that someone is available and I would not want to miss out on something like that.”

The trip to Halesowen comes 11 days after the Yeltz knocked Town out of the Southern League Challenge Cup at the very first hurdle.

However, Wright believed the game was not a true reflection on how strong both sets of squads are, adding the FA Cup draw being done prior to the clash influenced how the teams lined up.

Nonetheless, the Town gaffer knew that his team were poor on the day and did not deserve to progress, but stressed that was all forgotten about and is looking forward to the reverse meeting in the country’s biggest cup competition.

“With the fact that the FA Cup draw was done prior to the League Cup game, it made it a dip your toes in and have a little feel kind of affair,” added Wright.

“We rested players and so did they, and I wouldn’t say it was ‘part one’ of anything as the game was a bit standoffish.

“We were not good enough on the day, though, and nobody came out shining apart from those that were rested.

“However, we won’t talk about the previous game to the lads, as it’s not a revenge thing for us.

"We were lacklustre that night and I wanted it to be forgotten quickly.

“Saturday is a different cup competition altogether and we will respect Halesowen because they got relegated last year and have every intention of coming straight back up this year.

“We go over there focussed solely on our own game plan and hopefully it comes off on the day.

“I don’t want to go down that ‘we want revenge’ route as it can add too much spice to things – there should be enough incentives in that dressing room to progress.”

With only Liam Hughes (suspended) unavailable for the trip to Halesowen, Wright has a full complement of players to pick from and his hope now is Town kick on from two positive Southern Premier Central results which saw the Blues draw 1-1 at unbeaten Coalville Town on Saturday before downing Alvechurch 2-0 at the Arden Garages Stadium on Tuesday night.

“There’s no quick fix when lads go through bad spells,” said Wright.

“We haven’t changed the system, we haven’t changed the training sessions, we haven’t changed anything at all.

“Of course, we brought in some new personnel and that has made a difference somewhat, but sometimes you just have to play yourselves out of a bad run and hopefully we have now come out the other side of a disappointing string of results.

“Hopefully the fans will feel more at ease now and that they really get behind us on Saturday as they do make a difference.”

Town have also confirmed 19-year-old striker Dylan Parker and 21-year-old midfielder James Hancocks have dual registered with Rugby Town to get more minutes.

Both remain in Wright’s plans and he will closely monitor their progress.