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News articles from Danny Hall at the Standard

News from Danny Hall at the Wilts and Glos Standard

CIRENCESTER TOWN boss Brian Hughes is delighted that Zack Kotwica has decided to extend his loan spell at the Centurions until the end of the season.

Kotwica was one of seven Cheltenham Town players who learned from manager Gary Johnson last week that they were not going to earn new deals after the summer. But Hughes is more than happy that Kotwica is prepared to stay until his Cheltenham contract runs out.

"I gave myself two tasks with Zack: to make him enjoy his football again and to put him back in the shop window. I think we have done both. He has got eight goals and plenty of assists for us and done lots of good things. Sometimes he has been ineffective but for the most part it has been very positive. He's coming out of his shell more and more and joining in the banter. He's a nice kid whose quality makes things happen for us. We did the deal just in time because Chippenham were also chasing him at the same time."

AIDAN BENNETT will be restored to the Cirencester Town forward line for tonight's game against Histon – if the game goes ahead. The saturated Corinium Stadium pitch was badly cut up in Saturday's home defeat to Chippenham and this evening's fixture must be in doubt given any more rain.

Bennett, who has been playing as a makeshift left back, scored in the 22nd minute of Town's disappointing 4-1 loss to title-chasing Chippenham Town, his super strike from 25 yards being one of the rare highlights in the match for the home side.

Brian Hughes, who has continually built successful, competitive sides on a shoestring in his two long spells as Cirencester Town manager, finds himself puzzled at the inconsistency of his current squad. They enjoyed a great run in this season's FA Trophy until their controversial exit against Truro, but fill 17th spot in the Southern Premier division and Saturday's defeat by the Bluebirds and the late-October 5-1 home drubbing to Dunstable are two results that have certainly put Hughes under pressure.

"We look a totally different side when we get our noses in front, so we are going to try and be a bit more adventurous in future," said Hughes, who had a long heart-to-heart with his assistants Keith Knight and Jody Bevan earlier this week in a bid to come up with a winning formula. There is a fine line between being attack-minded and gung ho, but we are going to be offensive from the start. After we led at Merthyr we defended for our lives and they never looked like scoring. Then we ship four goals against Chippenham.

"The less said about our defending on Saturday the better. Conditions had become a farce and I understand it was very difficult for defenders, but there were no fireworks from us after we went 3-1 down at half-time. Chippenham will never get an easier three points at our place and that disappointed me."

So Bennett will be restored to the three-man Ciren strike force either tonight or in Saturday's visit to Bedworth United as one of a number of squad changes, with teenager Ollie Knight dropping to the bench.

"Aidan has played at full back by default and has been doing very well," said Hughes. "He had a bit of spell a few months ago when things were not working for him and he asked to be taken out of the side. Then while he was on the bench he was unsettled by an approach from Evesham. Like a lot of players he thrives on confidence. When Aidan is bubbly and cheerful he is right up there with the best of them. He's a strong lad, very brave, and I was chuffed that he got that goal. He needed it. Ollie has scored a couple of goals for us recently but the heavy pitches are doing him no favours and I feel he needs to come out of the firing line for a bit. The next time we play we will go properly 4-3-3 with Aidan's strength on one side and Zack Kotwica's pace on the other side. And we will be trying to get more balls in the box for Charlie (Griffin) who has been rather starved of service lately.

"We will play with just one holding midfielder and use the tremendous energy Matt Liddiard and Jamie Reid getting forward from midfield. It's been a long road back for Reidy from his cruciate injury and so far he has only played off the bench. He thinks he can only give me an hour at first team pace but we will see. Since Ian Herring left we have missed his driving force on the field and character in the changing room, and that's something that Reidy brings."

This entry was posted on 05 January 2016 at 11:36 and is filed under First Team | Miscellaneous. You can leave a response here.

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