Kentish Football

Record signing Rook set to leave Angels

Saturday 20th June 2009
TONBRIDGE ANGELS boss Tommy Warrilow admits to have lost the fight to keep star striker Carl Rook at Longmead Stadium, writes Stephen McCartney.

Warrilow, who got married fourteen days ago and has just returned from his honeymoon in Crete, admits record-signing Rook is destined to end his love affair with the club.

“I’m not sure if Carl Rook will start the season with us,” Warrilow told www.kentishfootball.co.uk this morning.

“We’ve had a little bit of interest that’s ongoing at the moment.  I really obviously can’t say too much about that - and the same with Leon Legge.  I’ll be making a few calls next week.  I’m assuming they won’t be with us at the start of the season.”

Warrilow added: “I believe Phil Starkey has sorted out a trial, I believe at Crawley, that’s the last I’ve heard.  

“Lewis Hamilton, I may hear from, but then all the others, the rest have moved on.”

Brothers Tim and Ade Olorunda (Hastings United), Simon Glover (Bromley), Tommy Tyne (Cray Wanderers) have already found new clubs.

But Lee Worgan (goalkeeper), Scott Gooding (defender), Lee Minshull (midfielder), Anthony Storey (midfielder), Steve Ferguson (right winger) and striker Paul Booth have remained at the club.

Warrilow has made two summer signings already with defender Nick Davis coming in from Ramsgate and left-winger Kirk Watts returning for another spell with the club, having arrived from Tooting & Mitcham United.

“I’m hoping that Jamie Cade should be coming back,” added Warrilow.  “Obviously I’ve signed Nick Davis and re-signed Kirk Watts, at the moment I would say there’s ten, possibly eleven that would be definitely coming back, in the starting eleven in the Ryman Premier.”

He added: “I’m about to ring one up and see if he’s going to sign, taking my quota to eleven.”

The Angels report back to pre-season training at Longmead Stadium at 10:30 next Saturday morning and Warrilow has given last season’s reserve team players a chance to impress him.

“I’m not giving up on the boys that were in the ressies last year,” he said.

“I’ve got people like Jon Heath, whose played at this level anyway, and hopefully he can stay injury free.

“There’s about three or four others that we’re looking forward to seeing.  We’re back next Saturday so everyone will get a fair crack of the whip.

When asked how many players will be attending their first training session, Warrilow replied, “You want the truth mate, I don’t know.  I would say with the reserves and the first team players that have indicated in coming back, we would hopefully have about 20-25 players, there might be a couple more.”

But this is the perfect opportunity for players like Paul Butler, Bobby Dixey, Sonny Miles, Heath and Danny Powell to step up to the plate.

“Last year was very, very hard for them,” admitted Warrilow.  “I used to speak to (then reserve team manager and then chairman) Julian (Leigh) and Nick (Sullivan) week in week out and see who was doing well and who wasn’t.

“I had a 18-19 man (first team) squad that was full of quality and it was difficult to break into it.  When we had the opportunity to use the boys the boys that did come in they did well.

“I’d would have liked to have looked at them more, that was my decision sometimes. The most important thing was to win games first.  A disaster last year was not having a cup run and hopefully the draws will be kinder to us (to enable me to play these boys).

Warrilow was being interviewed whilst watching an under 18 trial at the club and he is looking forward to the club’s pre-season programme.

“I’ve managed to pull some decent friendlies in at home and that’s looking a lot better,” he said.  “We’ve got Ebbsfleet, Eastbourne Borough and Gillingham coming down and we’re away at Welling so we’ve got some testers.

“Also, in between that we’ve got Erith & Belvedere away, Tunbridge Wells at home.  I’m taking a team to Slade Green and Thamesmead and we’ve got VCD as well in there.

“There’s enough games, so we’ll mix and match them up.  We’ve got trialists coming down and we’ll look at them in that.”

But Warrilow is looking forward to the new season, despite working with a reduced budget.

He said: “The initial kick was a shock to everyone but then once the dust settled and we all calmed down life goes on.

“We’ve got to cut our cloth accordingly and at the moment it’s not looking too sad.  

“One thing we’re not going to have is the strength in depth that we had last year.” 

Visit Tonbridge Angels’ website: www.tonbridgeafc.co.uk








 

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