'˜Show me what you can do' says Town manager

They travel to take on Amateur League Premier Division side Nortel on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 1.30pm) and manager Ryan Watson is set to ring the changes to his starting line-up as the squad players get their chance to bid for regular starts.

“It’s a good opportunity to get game time for some of the other guys in the squad,” he said.

“There are other players there who are working hard and we’ll give them a chance to show what they can do. 
“We’ll make a few changes to bring some of those guys in. We have a strong starting 11 but we have a strong bench as well so the team we put out will be a good one. We’ll be going out to win the game.”

Nortel are currently sitting in 11th spot in the Premier Division table, but have only played eight league matches. They’ve won three, drawn two and lost three of those.

Town, fresh off the back of Saturday’s victory over Wakehurst at Mill Meadow, with therefore go into the game as favourites. In the long slog of a competition, a win would only see the club through to the last 16 but that’s still a prize well worth fighting for, according to Watson.

He said: “It’s a great opportunity for us to progress and keep things ticking over with another positive result. It would be nice to go on a run, even if it is a long haul to get to the final of this competition.

“The league is our priority of course but it would be good to even get through another few rounds to prevent the free Saturdays creeping in and keep the confidence up.

“It’s a pity it’s away from home but the draw could definitely have been a lot worse for us. There are still a lot of big teams left in the draw but then these Amateur League teams are very dangerous in Cup competitions.”

Town will go into the game at the Nortel Factory Ground, Newtownabbey without defender James Wilson but other than that, have a clean bill of health and a full squad to choose from.