Dale ready to make Welfare quake in their boots

Joe Dale is one of the best players in the league and teams fear him, according to Selby Town manager Christian Fox. Picture: Dave Haddock

Magic man Joe Dale is available again for Selby Town and ready to make Glasshoughton Welfare defenders quake in their boots on Tuesday night.

Dale and fellow key player Chris Bilton are leading local cricketers so cannot play on Saturdays until the beginning of September.

But they are available for selection for midweek fixtures and are set to make the journey to Leeds Road – a place Selby have never won at during the Christian Fox era.

However there are no guarantees that the pair will start the fixture as the team which faced Dronfield Town on Saturday did the business by leading them to a controversial 3-2 victory.

“Joey Dale should be okay for midweek games now and it is the same for Billo (Chris Bilton),” Fox told Non League Yorkshire.

“Will Ramsay is still away though, as is Ali Ann. They are four quality players who have yet to play this season and are due to come back in. That’s a massive positive.

“You’ll probably agree that on his day Joey Dale is one of the best players in the league. I think teams will fear him. 

“But there is others players up there who have done really well in the first two games so it may not be easy for him to come back into the team. 

“The front three have done really well and there’s also other players chomping at the bit to get in. Harry Bissett has done well in pre-season and he’s probably unlucky not to get in.

“That’s what it has to be like. It shouldn’t be easy for anyone to get into the starting eleven. Last season in the second half of it we had 13/14 players and 11 of them knew they were going to play.

“That’s how standards can drop.”

Selby Town manager Christian Fox has high hopes for the new season

Selby are one of many clubs missing key players for the start of the new Toolstation NCEL Division One campaign because of holidays and Cricket.

The starting eleven in the opening day 1-1 draw with Skegness Town had several regulars missing. The same applied to the dramatic Dronfield clash and Fox believes the season should actually start later in August.

“I think it should be starting later, I don’t understand why we started later than everyone else, possibly it is because of the FA Cup,” he said.

“But we do know when it is starting in advance and the lads know when, but it is difficult.

“People have wives/girlfriends, people work in schools and you know fine well that they’ll take holidays in those six weeks.

“There’s also cricket which a lot of players play.

“I think the league would be better starting later in August to coincide with the BetVictor, but that’s just my opinion.”

What Selby’s opening two games have shown is they appear to have strong strength-in-depth. The issue has been a bugbear for the past two seasons as a lack of it has de-railed promotion hopes.

But Fox says it is too early to call.

“To be fair it is only the second game of the season so we can’t really tell at the minute,” he said.

“The strength in depth will only tell further in the season. But it is nice to have the numbers first and foremost and nice to have quality.

“But considering who we have had missing, the lads who have played have really stepped up to the mark. The teams (Skegness and Dronfield) we have played so far no doubt will be up there challenging for promotion at the end of the season.”

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