BLUES boss Mark Fell is eagerly anticipating his managerial debut at Victoria Park.
The former Whinney Hill boss, who was joined at Nelson FC by assistant Tim Breaker, has so far endured two postponements at Little Wembley during his tenure with games against Rochdale Town and Atherton Collieries falling victim to the inclement weather.
Instead Fell’s weekends have been spent at Valley Road, Rakesmoor Lane and the Abbey Stadium where the Blues have picked up a solitary point in respective NWC First Division fixtures against Northwich Villa, Holker Old Boys and Abbey Hey.
Fell now has his fingers crossed for December 15th where Nelson are scheduled to face Barry Walker’s Abbey Hey on home soil, just weeks after the two sides met in the second round of the divisional trophy.
“I’m still waiting,” he declared. “We were supposed to make our managerial home debuts on Saturday but unfortunately the pitch wasn’t playable. We’re desperate to get going so we’ll hopefully have our first game at Victoria Park next Saturday against Abbey Hey. It’s been a long time coming.”
Playing football is of paramount importance to any manager at any level of the game, but for Fell it will be a chance to stop the rot in terms of results and an opportunity to bed in his new signings. Brandon Barski, Benjamin Bridson (pictured in action for Colne), Matthew Haworth, Toqiiz Hussain, Daniel Johnson, Patryic Mactejewski, Thomas Murphy, Michael Pilkington and Jamie Whiteman have all been added to the squad in a bid to replenish a run that has seen the Blues lose nine of their last 11 outings in all competitions.
“We just want to play a match whether it be at home or away,” said Fell. “We’ve only played three times in a period of around a month. We haven’t had the results we were hoping for and we’ve brought several new faces in so it’s important for us to get some game time.”
Fell added: “We’ve had some good training sessions and a training match against Barnoldswick Town which gave us the opportunity to have a look at some of the lads that we’ve brought in. We need to try and get them to gel and develop as a team. It’s been hard work.
“We’re praying for the game against Rochdale Town to be on tomorrow. I watched them at the weekend and I feel we’re capable of really getting at them and beating them. It’s been frustrating for everybody but hopefully we can get going again tomorrow and kick on.”
But despite having to play the waiting game, Fell is adamant that the club’s transformation, both on and off the field, is well underway. “We’ve made a lot of head way without being able to show what we are doing,” said Fell. “We’ve brought players in, worked hard in training and getting the lads to play how we want them to. We’ve made inroads off the field as well both commercially and raising the profile of the club.
“There’s no doubt we’ve got good football players here who have played at a significantly higher level than this. I’m confident that the lads we’ve got in now can do the job and help us turn the corner. We’ve still got lots of games in hand so we just want to get them played and start picking up points.”