Edwards ‘Go out there, play without fear or tension and enjoy it’
Courteney White returns to squad after loan spell
Neil Cousins released
By Paul Jennings

The Blues welcome Metropolitan Police to New Lodge on Saturday knowing that another win will see them remain at the top of the Ryman Premier League.

After a weekend of upsets that saw both AFC Hornchurch and Lowestoft suffer shock defeats, Blues boss Craig Edwards knows what is required to win the league.

‘It is Lowestoft’s to lose’ said Edwards ‘But, we’re in a great position and the team who ultimately wins this league will be the ones who handle the pressure the best. I’ve said to the lads that we’ve worked so hard to get to this position that we should go out there, play without fear or tension and enjoy it’

Whilst Hornchurch and Lowestoft were losing, the Blues were drawing at Hastings and Edwards feels that his team should have come away with more than a point.

‘We didn’t play well at Hastings, but you can’t play well all the time. We haven’t been as fluent in the last month as we had earlier in the season, but what you can do when things aren’t going well is work harder. Hastings went down to 10 men and we had a lot of the ball in and around the box, but we couldn’t open them up or deliver a decent ball into the box in the 2nd half’

Despite the recent lack of form, Edwards is still happy with his squad and the mix of players he has at his disposal.

‘There are only 6 clubs in this division who have smaller budgets than us, so that just shows just how well we’ve done this season. We’ve got a small, very flexible squad with a lot of players who can play in various positions’ he said.

One player who is added to the squad for the visit of Met Police is forward Courteney White who returns to New Lodge following his loan spell at Waltham Forest.

‘It’s great to have Courteney back from his loan spell at Waltham Forest. They were over the moon with him in the time that he spent there. He scored 5 goals in the 12 games he played and he comes back to us match fit and raring to go’

Edwards has the same squad to pick from as he did at Hastings 7 days ago, but Saturday’s game will be Richard Halle’s last before a 2 game suspension.

In other player news, Craig Edwards Junior had a successful knee operation on Wednesday and expects to be back in training in the next couple of weeks.

However, one player who won’t feature is Neil Cousins who has been released.

The Met Police are having a fine first season back in the Ryman Premier League. After hitting the heady heights of 3rd earlier in the season their results have remained consistent and they currently sit in 9th position and just 3 points from the play off positions.

Admission is £9.50 for adults, £6.50 for concessions and £2.50 for under 16’s

Kick off is at 15.00

Blues last 6 games:
21/01/12; Hastings Utd 0 Blues 0
14/01/12; Blues 2 Wingate & Finchley 0
07/01/12; Tooting & Mitcham 4 Blues 2
02/01/12; Bury Town 1 Blues 1
31/12/11; Blues 3 Harrow Borough 0
27/12/11; Blues 0 AFC Hornchurch 1

Last time v Met Police
08/10/11; Met Police 0 Blues 1 (Chatting)