FOOTBALL: Veteran Manley is bringing on the young guns for Ilminster Town

ILMINSTER Town Football Club’s youth chairman has been thanked for his help in bringing young players forward to senior football.

Darren Manley, who has been involved with Ilminster Town for many years in various guises from player to manager to chairman, is enjoying helping out with the management of the club’s first team once again in the Premier Division of the Somerset County League.

Already this season the team has had to field a number of younger players and they have been thrown in at the deep end.

But they have certainly not been used to “make up the numbers” and have produced a string of promising performances.

And a club spokesman said: “Credit must also go to Darren Manley who has added his considerable experience to the management team,

“Manley has been instrumental in bringing the players in from the Ilminster youth set up where he is chairman.
"No one has as much knowledge of local football than Darren and alongside George Hamill and Andy Dyke has really brought the team on with the training and his tactical knowledge."

The praise for Manley came after a 2-1 victory at Bridgwater Town Reserves in the Premier Division on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.
The club spokesman said: “Yet another young player came off the Ilminster conveyor belt with the introduction from the bench of yet another highly promising young player in 17-year-old Tom Sullivan.”

The win at Bridgwater saw Ilminster move into the top six of the table and three points were extra special as the game was played in the most awful conditions with high winds and heavy rain that made playing football very difficult.

Kicking with the strong wind at their backs it was Bridgwater who took the lead midway through the first-half.

Ilminster worked really hard and were delighted to get in at half-time only 1-0 down.
Within five minutes of the restart and with the wind behind them The Blues soon equalised when Karl Davies delivered a cross/shot from the left that went straight in.

Bridgwater had lost their keeper at half-time with an injury and their left-back who had taken over in goal was at fault when in the 70th minute Davies crossed from the left again, and he could not believe his luck when the ball sailed in for his and Ilminster's second.

There were further chances the best falling to Charlie Rutter who could have done better.

But all in all this difficult midweek fixture brought the young team three more points and pushed them up to sixth in the table, which was beyond their wildest dreams after a difficult pre-season.

Ilminster Town are back in action on Saturday (September 23, 2017) when they play host to Stockwood Wanderers at the Archie Gooch Pavilion in a 3pm kick-off.

PHOTO – TOP: Ilminster Town legend Darren Manley.

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