Young Rangers team stick together

Stafford Rangers assistant boss Steve Wynn believes that if the players continue to stick together next season their young team can prosper.

Raw talent has been the order of the day at Marston Road over the past year and again this summer, with 29-year-old defender Craig McAughtrie the oldest player on the books.

Nick Wellecomme and Levi Reid are both 26 while Andre Francis and Grant Goodhead are both 25, with the rest going all the way down to 19-year-old duo Fabrice Kasiama and Jon Patrick.

But all have been at the club before this summer and have played together before, with even most of the trial players spending a full pre-season with the squad.

Rangers have had to give youth a chance to pad their team out and rely on the more experienced players on the books to help guide the youngsters through.

Whether it's working will be judged before and after their competitive return to action on Saturday in the Blue Square North season opener at Boston United, but Wynn believes that having a settled ship can help offset the lack of experience in the ranks.

He said: "Young players will suffer from a little bit of inconsistency, so that is something we are going to need to be aware of.

"The good thing is that there's a real togetherness about the squad, they all know each other so there won't have to be a bedding in period. We haven't signed seven or eight new players, it's been minimal really and we have got some great characters about the place.

"Everybody is positive and we want to progress, we speak about it a lot."