Non-league: Killick unlikely to rotate despite hectic schedule (From Bournemouth Echo)

Non-league: Killick unlikely to rotate despite hectic schedule

7:00am Friday 1st February 2013 in Non league football By Ian Wadley

BOSS Tom Killick will resist the temptation to rotate his Poole Town team – despite admitting their fixture pile-up is giving him cause for concern.

Title favourites Poole are eight points behind Hungerford with six games in hand on the Southern League Division One South & West leaders.

Dolphins, who have lost just twice in 21 matches this term, have fallen adrift of the pacesetters following three successive postponements.

But although his men are now facing the prospect of a gruelling late-season schedule, Killick intends to field his best XI whenever possible.

Killick told the Daily Echo: “I don’t rotate for the sake of rotating. At this level, I don’t think you can afford to do it and I feel you have to try to be at your strongest every week.

“People in the squad will get chances because of the number of games but I won’t be playing people for the sake of it. It has to be done on merit.”

Poole will be hoping to beat the weather and then Shortwood United when they visit the Gloucestershire outfit tomorrow (3pm).

Killick, among the crowd when Wimborne beat Shortwood at Cuthbury on Tuesday, added: “A lot of the teams around us have been in the same situation with numerous games being called off.

“But Hungerford have managed to play during this spell and they are now in a strong position. It is certainly getting concerning.

“We have got 19 or 20 players available for selection tomorrow, which is probably the strongest we have been all season.

“But playing so many games in such a short period of time means injuries become inevitable, so Hungerford have definitely got an advantage.”

Dolphins: (from) Hutchings, K Emmerson, Walker, Spetch, Clarke, Preston, Devlin, Howes, Burbidge, Charles, Byerley, Kelly, Brooks, Baggridge, Richardson, Dibba, Baines, S Brown, T Brown.