NPL Division One East
Pickering Town manager Steve Roberts has thanked the football family for financially supporting injured attacker Omar Sanyang.
Pickering recently launched a JustGiving page to support Sangyang who broke his leg in a match at Ossett United.
The target was quickly reached and over £1000 has been raised so far.
“I was really pleased with the response and I thought it was fantastic,” Roberts told Non League Yorkshire.
“Omar is a great kid so I wasn’t really surprised that people backed (the appeal).
“Looking at the JustGiving page now, it has gone really well and blown the target we set.
“It is nice when you can help someone who cannot work as he is a delivery driver.
“I wouldn’t like to say how long he won’t be able to work so (the money) will help support him.
“I must say a big thanks to Ossett United, their chairman, volunteers, players, manager, fans, for their fantastic support on the day it happened and afterwards with the appeal.”
Sanyang’s injury blow was a major blow to Pickering’s survival.
Pickering are bottom and seven points adrift of outright safety but Roberts says belief of escaping trouble remains in the camp.
“We have spoken about it at length since the results we were hoping for didn’t go our way (in the last month),” he said.
“If we don’t pick up results, it’ll only end up one way.
“We have no time to sulk and moan about it.
“It is not at the stage where it isn’t in our hands.
“If we can get results, we’re not too far adrift to catch up.
“But we need to start picking up points and stick together as a group and not get down.
“It is a challenge and we have to thrive off the challenge and say ‘we can do this’.
“I can’t have anyone in the changing room who doesn’t believe we can out of this situation.
“We all have to be positive with the same mindset.
“There’s still ten big games to go.”
Although Roberts insists his side can avoid relegation, he does say the foundations are in place if Pickering were to return to the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division.
“I want to do this long-term and build something,” he said.
“The main aim is to try and stay in this league but the worst case scenario is we do go down.
“If worst comes to the worst, we have a plan to rebuild again to make us stronger and to come back into this league.
“With the scholarship set-up, the platform is already there to make us stronger.
“We have had one-or-two players involved – Liam Love has played in the last three games and he’s a scholarship player.
“George Harrison has been in-and-around the bench in the last few weeks.
“The scholarship programme will only get stronger in the next few years and will provide a good foundation.”