Kentish Football 
We've got to build on our win over K's, says injury hit Stones boss Peter Nott
Thursday 23rd September 2010
MAIDSTONE UNITED boss Peter Nott has today unveiled the signing of former Welling United striker Tommy Whitnell, writes Stephen McCartney.
The 21-year-old, who lives in Kings Hill, scored 15 goals for Welling United in Blue Square South last season from 27 starts - and his previous clubs include Millwall, Ebbsfleet United and Cray Wanderers.
“We tried to sign Tommy at the end of last season but at the time he decided to stay at Welling as he had done well for them and wanted to continue playing at that level,“ Nott told www.maidstoneunited.co.uk.
“However, with the signings of Luis Cumbers and Andy Pugh from Gillingham his opportunities at Welling this season have been limited.
“Tommy wants to be playing regularly and we are delighted to have agreed terms with him to join us."
Whitnell has attracted interest from several clubs from the Blue Square Bet South and the Ryman Premier. He will be available for selection for Saturday's game at home to bottom-of-the-table side Horsham.
The Hornets have collected only two points from their first seven league games and Nott insists his side go into the home game confident after coming away from high-flying Kingstonian with a 1-0 win last weekend, courtesy of Ant Bodle’s sixteenth minute winner.
“We’re delighted for everyone connected with the club,” Nott told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.
“We’ve taken a lot of criticism internally and quite rightly so with the performance we had last week and our run of poor results. It was a case of going out there and proving that we can play and we’ve assembled a squad good enough to compete at this level.
“Confidence has been running low lately and we changed the formation at Kingstonian and we went to a 4-5-1, which could quite easily turned into a 4-3-3 because of the two wide men, Jake Hobbs and Antonio Gonella linking up.
“We deservedly won the game 1-0, against an experienced team with a budget and a reputation probably twice as big as ours.
“We took an early lead through Ant Bodle, the first time we haven’t caved before the break. We looked solid. It was a good all round team performance and we created more chances and we had a goal disallowed. We hung on a little bit at the end, which is what you expect from the home team but very pleased and pleased for everyone at the club, the chairman and all the way down.
“We owed them that one and we have to build on it. We’re still third from bottom but we have to make sure we’re no where near that (relegation) zone and it gives us something to build on against Horsham.”
The Stones could climb out of the relegation zone with a win over Horsham, a side that collected only their second point of the season with a goal-less draw against fellow strugglers Folkestone Invicta last weekend.
“It’s probably too early to be talking about six-pointers, but Horsham are desperate for points and we know what that’s like,” said Nott.
“There’s no easy game in this league. In one way you want the teams that are not desperate for points but at this stage of the season everyone’s fighting. Horsham are an organised team. We’ve seen them play and we’ll be fully prepared for them.
“Our biggest problem at the moment is we now go into Saturday’s game with James Peacock and Adam Marsh suspended from the Cup game (at Whitehawk) a couple of weeks ago. Danny Hockton had to come off with a groin injury (at Kingstonian) and will be out for a couple of weeks now and we’ll see how that reacts and Simon Pettit came off with a knee injury.
“With the squad that we’ve got and the budget we’re working to we can’t cope with that amount of injuries. We’ve already got Tom Parkinson, who may feature after a hamstring injury; Jermaine Darlington will be out with a hamstring injury for three-to-four weeks and Ashley Ulph and Mark Corneille are struggling with their injuries as are Nick Davis and Marc Cumberbatch.
“We’re being stretched to the limit here so it’s nice to see local boys coming up from our youth set-up and that’s a credit to the hard work that’s gone on in the youth section.
“A club like ours need that coming through so the youngsters will get a chance but we know you can’t play too many of them, especially with a club near the bottom but it’s good that we’ve got them coming through but we probably need to recruit a couple of players as quickly as possible to join the squad, one that’s dwindling by the day, it seems.”
Visit Maidstone United’s website: www.maidstoneunited.co.uk
Maidstone United v Horsham
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 25th September 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Homelands Stadium, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd