Reading Chronicle | Sport | 'Hard work starts here' for Thatcham

Friday, 16th May, 2008

Published: Monday, 28th April, 2008 12:00

'Hard work starts here' for Thatcham

It was 13th time lucky for Thatcham as Ryan Williams fired home the only goal of the game midway through the second half to end Town’s 12 game winless streak.

It was also Ackling’s first victory in seven games since taking over the Thatcham hotseat last month and the Town boss was delighted to go into the busy summer break on a high.

He said: “It was good to sign off with a win and a clean sheet and end the season on a positive note.

“But there’s a lot of hard work to be done now and I’ll be having a word with the players over the next couple of weeks.

“I’ve got to get some out to get some in as we’ve got a tight budget which doesn’t leave us much room for manoeuvre.

“We’ve drawn up a list of players but we have to be realistic. Some of them are already playing at this level while others are in the level below but have the potential to step up.

“We’ve no set ideas but we know the areas we need to strengthen and it promises to be a busy time between now and when we report back to pre-season training in early July.

“But we’ve already signed Tom Melledew and Paul Strudley on for next season and there’s a good positive feel around the club at the moment about the future.”

Thatcham will certainly go into the summer break in positive mood after their well-deserved 1-0 win against a Windsor & Eton side who had haboured hopes of securing a play-off spot until recent weeks.

Williams pounced to stab the ball home from close range on 68 minutes after Windsor keeper Seb Brown had fumbled and that proved to be the only goal of the encounter.

“Windsor definitely didn’t roll over and die after they missed out on the play-offs but we were good value for the win,” Ackling said.

“We had chances to kill the game off when they went three up front chasing an equaliser but although we couldn’t take them we fully deserved the victory.”

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