NPL Division One East
Stocksbridge Park Steels manager Chris Hilton is confident star sharp-shooter Joe Lumsden will be firing on all cylinders again very soon.
Lumsden has struggled with injury in recent times and his bad luck continued last month with a bout of covid-19.
He returned to the fold two weeks ago and he scored in Saturday’s defeat to Spennymoor Town.
Hilton, who expects to confirm a new signing this week and is searching for one further addition, is hopeful his key man will be at or nearing peak fitness by the opening day battle with Stockton Town on August 14th.
“He had covid bad so he was in bed for six or seven days with it,” Hilton told Non League Yorkshire.
“His first 45 minutes were in the second half at Hemsworth away.
“We then got 75 minutes at Emley but he was really struggling.
“Then we got another 70 minutes out of him on Saturday (against Spennymoor) with a view of getting more game-time out of him so he’s ready for the 14th.
“His sharpness is getting there but he’s not where he wants to be.
“He’s a natural goal-scorer who scores 20 to 25 goals a season and creates as well.
“Teams are fearful of him and teams have game-plans to try and stop him, he’s that good.
“He’s a big part of our side and he’s one of our main guys upfront so we need to get him firing but he’s on the right path.”
Lumsden’s woes are just one of many backdrops to a frustrating pre-season for the Steels.
Although they have led in many of the games, the Steels are winless – not that it bothers Hilton who is seeing green shoots.
“We haven’t won a game in pre-season but I’m not concerned,” he said.
“Yes it would be nice to win every game but the idea of pre-season is to get us ready for the 14th.
“I don’t think pre-season was strong enough last season so we have picked teams who we know will be a challenge and won’t be easy games.
“We purposely set up this week to be strong with Spennymoor, Sheffield Wednesday and Chesterfield.
“That’s three really tough games before we hit the 14th.
“That’s the thinking behind it and it has been frustrating in pre-season because we haven’t had full sides.
“But Saturday I saw an improvement in pre-season as we did really well against a strong Spennymoor team.
“We lost after conceding two in the last few minutes but I was pleased with the progress we made.”
The latest friendly – the visit of Sheffield Wednesday under 23s tonight to Bracken Moor – will be the biggest attendance at home for quite some time.
So Hilton is looking forward to it.
“I believe Sheffield Wednesday under 23s who played yesterday (Sunday) didn’t play the under 23s, they played the younger lads so it should be a very strong 23s team and maybe a few fringe first team players (for our game),” he said.
“It is going to be good to see a big crowd.
“The club had sold over 200 tickets a few weeks ago. I don’t know how many they have sold now but there should be a few people there and a good atmosphere.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
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