By RICHARD WILLIAMS
19 December 2006
WREXHAM
striker Lee McEvilly will continue on the comeback trail tonight as he hopes to
be available for the Reds’ busy Christmas and New Year programme.
Joey Jones’ reserves are in action tonight at Buckley Town’s Globe Way against
Manchester CIty (7pm kick off) and manager Denis Smith is keen to give McEvilly
at least a further 45 minutes of action.
The striker has been plagued by a host of injuries since joining Wrexham from
then Conference side Accrington Stanley, and was forced to sit out the start of
the campaign after breaking a bone in his foot during pre-season.
However, McEvilly is firmly on the road to recovery and after putting in a
double goalscoring appearance against Macclesfield Town reserves last week. He
also enjoyed more than 20 minutes of the Reds 1-1 draw with League Two leaders
Walsall on the weekend.
Reds assistant manager Kevin Russell admitted it was going to be vital to get
McEvilly and the other strikers fit for the seasonal period.
He said: “Lee is going to get 45 minutes in tonight’s game, but we have got to
make sure we take our time with him coming back.
“He did well on Saturday against Walsall, but we have got to be careful and not
rush him back too quickly. With all the injuries we have got at the club and
with one or two suspensions we’ve had as well, we don’t have the luxury of
giving players too long on the sidelines. It’s not ideal, because we would like
to give him three weeks to get fit and play more reserve team football, but the
situation we’re in we have got to try and nurse him through.
“We’re hoping to have Neil (Roberts) and Juan (Ugarte) back and available soon
as well and that is going to be a real boost.”
Also in action tonight for the reserves will be Simon Spender, Gareth Evans,
Michael Jones and Matt Crowell, who were unused substitutes in the draw with
Walsall.
But one youngster who will not be in action tonight is striker Marc Williams,
who played a full 90 minutes on the weekend and has done his growing reputation
no harm whatsoever.
Williams was a constant nuisance to the Walsall backline and linked up well with
Reds’ goalscorer Chris Llewellyn. Williams has impressed so much he might even
keep his place in the side for Saturday’s visit of Darlington.
Russell added: “I thought Marc played very, very well on Saturday and we will
look at the situation later on in the week, but he has certainly given himself a
chance.
“He was very busy and linked up very well with Chris up front. But that was only
one game at this level and what he now has to do is to continue to play and find
some level of consistency."