Wisbech in a stronger position for season opener

Wisbech Town start the new season on Saturday without influential defender Jon Fairweather - but still know they’re in a much stronger position than they were this time last season.

The Fenmen ended their pre-season fixtures undefeated after a 2-2 draw at fellow Step 4 outfit Biggleswade on Saturday and will train twice this week before entertaining Coleshill Town in the new Northern Premier League Midland Division.

With manager Brett Whaley squeezing in a holiday before the competitive season starts, assistant boss Chris Lenton took charge on Saturday, seeing goals from Eoin McQuaid and substitute Avi Vieira turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead before they conceded a late equaliser.

Lenton told the Citizen: “It was similar to the rest of the pre-season games in that we didn’t put in a 90 minute performance.

“We started poorly and they started well, but we made some positional changes at the break and got higher up the pitch and caused them plenty of problems.”

Lenton said preparations were much better than the previous year and he and Whaley believe the squad is much stronger too.

“The aim this season is not to be in those bottom places, so it would be great to start with a positive result,” he said.

“We don’t want to be down there this time around as we have been when the last two seasons were stopped because of Covid-19. We’ve got some good players here and we want to be pushing up the league.

“There’s some new teams in this division and some of them are big names with big budgets, but they’re the type of games we want to be playing in.”

Lenton said the management team had long known that Fairweather would not be available for the opening fixture, but although a player of his experience will be missed, usual left back Tom Mcleish played very well at left centre back against Biggleswade, alongside Ben Richards, with captain Liam Marshall at left back, as they planned for a game without Fairweather.

Wisbech team v Biggleswade: Congreve, Hart, Marshall, Richards, McLeish, Murphy, McQuaid (O Williams 80), Maddison, Edge (Vieira 55), Draper (A Williams 83), Adams (Allen 71). Subs (not used): Pearson, Fairweather.