Home fortress key for Senior (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Home fortress key for Senior

9:00am Thursday 4th February 2010

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TREVOR Senior believes St Mary’s Field must become a fortress if his Bridport side are to finish in the top half of Toolstation Western League Division One.

Boss Senior has presided over back-to-back successes on the road, with last Saturday’s timely win at Roman Glass St George following on from the Les Phillips Cup triumph at Brislington.

Such an outcome against Shepton Mallet on Saturday (3pm) will confirm a hat-trick of victories for the Bees, who are embarking on a gruelling run of 14 fixtures in eight weeks.

But to accomplish that feat they will have to win at home – something they haven’t done in more than three months.

Since vanquishing high-flying Odd Down on October 31, the West Dorset outfit have lost three successive matches on their own turf and been convincingly outplayed in each.

Bucking this worrying trend is Senior’s foremost priority and with Shepton languishing in 17th place, his charges have an ideal opportunity to do so.

The Bridport chief, whose side’s season is at the halfway point, said: “Our home form had been quite reliable but that hasn’t been the case for the last few games and it needs to change.

“Shepton Mallet are the sort of team we should be looking to beat if we are going to reach the top 10 and the fact that we are at home makes it even more important.

“If we can get another victory under our belts it will set up a big week for us with a trip to Gillingham Town and then a cup game against Keynsham.

“Thirteen of our last 19 matches are against teams in the bottom half of the division and performing consistently well in our home matches will help us climb the table.”

Warren Byerley, who scored the only goal of the game against Roman Glass, should make his St Mary's Field debut and again partner Matt Moors in attack.

Lewis Cocker is unlikely to feature for the time being because of ongoing issues over his availability, which means hitman Byerley’s presence is a real boost for the Bees.

And Jamie Symes is expected to be named in the squad after returning from a trial with Blackpool where he trained with the first team.

Dorchester Under-18s’ keeper Andy Suttle kept a clean sheet in his maiden Bridport appearance last weekend and will retain the gauntlets with Simon Evans’ services still required by the Magpies.

Discussing the performance of Suttle, Senior added: “Andy didn’t let us down on Saturday and said he is happy to play for us again.

“He certainly did enough to warrant keeping his place, and given that Regan Coward is still not close to full fitness he could be with us for a while.”

Bees (from): Suttle, Hill, C Clarke, Condliffe, Hayter, Lock, Senior, Jones, Wise, Watts, Moors, Byerley, J Symes, A Symes.

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