Golcar United boss Ash Connor has wished both Mike Fish and Jordan Townend all the best for the future as both players look to play more regular football elsewhere.
He believes despite losing both players he still has good options in his squad to continue to push for a play-off spot.
Connor said that both players had left the club amicably and he can understand the decision to leave to find football elsewhere.
He said: “Both players have decided to leave and on good terms from either side. They both want to play regularly and have probably been a bit frustrated with the game time they’ve had. We have a good squad and you can’t please everyone unfortunately, so we have shaken hands and moved on.
“They have both been great for us and we want to thank them for what they have done for us. I can’t speak highly enough of both of them, they have represented the club fantastically well.
“Mike joined a few seasons back and scored lots of goals for us. I think he really got us believing that we could be more than just a mid-table side.
“I remember his very first game for us at Garstang and he scored a hat-trick and that was the start of us really building to this point now.
“He had a great first season, then Covid-19 hit and so we probably lost a year and half of him playing. This season then started and he scored in the first game, he then had to deal with a few niggly injury problems.
“Since then Ash Flynn, Buddy Cox and Dan Naidole have been in fantastic form. We didn’t want Mike to leave but he wanted to go and get regular football which is understandable.
“As for Jordan he was one of the very first players we signed as a semi-pro club. He’s been a great servant for us, but he’s just not been able to grab a regular spot with others playing so well.”
Connor still has a large squad to pick from and is happy with options going into the last few games of the season.
He said: “We still have a good 19 players to pick from so we aren’t bad on options. Whilst it’s disappointing to lose a couple we have a good squad to pick from.”
Connor will need to utilise his squad as the Weavers go into the last eight games of the season. The club are in second spot in the North West Counties Division One North table on 62 points, ten points behind top club Bury AFC.
The current leaders lost for the first time this season when they were defeated last weekend by AFC Blackpool.
Golcar’s game against Nelson was postponed last weekend due to a waterlogged pitch, that game has now been rearranged for March 1.
United are back in action on Saturday, though, as they take on Ashton Town at home. The Weavers drew 2-2 with them earlier on this campaign. Connor knows that the last eight games are huge and it all starts on Saturday.
He said: “I went to go watch Ashton at the weekend since our game was off and they looked very good despite losing 2-1. They played Chadderton but I thought Ashton were the better team so we know we have a tough game on our hands.
“These last eight games are massive for us, they are like cup finals, all we can do is concentrate on ourselves and try to win as many games as possible.”
