Silsden manager Danny Forrest is pleased with the impact striker Mark Simpson has made since joining.
The Garforth Town legend and record goal-scorer played three times for Silsden before the November lockdown and scored twice, including on his debut against Albion Sports.
Forrest hopes his Leeds-based star will kick on and be a smash hit for Silsden.
“Opportunities to sign a goal-scorer like him and someone with the reputation of what he’s done before don’t come around often,” Forrest told Non League Yorkshire.
“He’s been great so far, he’s thrown himself and given it a good go. He has shown great desire to be at the club and do well for the club. That’s all I can ask from anybody.
“For him to come into a new network where he doesn’t know many people, he’s thought ‘I’m just going to give it a go’ and fair play to him because he’s settled in straightaway and made himself part of it.
“I’m really happy because we weren’t in great form when he arrived. Hopefully we will pick up and he will see the best of us and we can get the best out of him.”
Simpson will be in line for his fourth start for Silsden when they visit Goole AFC tomorrow for the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division restart.
The match is the first competitive fixture for Silsden since the exits of Leon Hurles-Brook and Khurram Shazad.
Forrest has replaced one of them with ex-Emley forward Craig Billington and he has further irons in the fire.
Because of departures and the Tier 3 restrictions and likelihood of reduced income from future home games, it was put to Forrest that playing a significant number of players from the club’s development teams to fill first team voids would have many benefits on various fronts for everyone concerned.
“It has gone through my head,” he said.
“We have got an extremely loyal core of eight or nine players who we build around every year.
“We are starting to blood a few more of the youngsters. On a large scale, if you say five, six, seven and eight then probably not.
“I’d say more two, three or four. But I’m quite proud of our under 23s setup and we may see more of them next summer.
“In terms of this year it is tough for a club like ours. I feel we have a lot to offer, we maybe don’t have the financial resource that some players like.
“Realistically are we going to get one of those top three places this year? I know it is still early doors and we’ve only played ten or 11 games but probably not. We’ll fight tooth and nail to get as high as we can.
“So I suppose there is an element of ‘let’s shape something for the future’.
“I have to give credit to our committee, we cut our cloth accordingly anyway. We’re never allowed to spend more than what comes in and we try to put money into other areas of the club to develop holistically.
“Ideally you don’t want to be throwing a load at it to try and get up there when you just don’t know what’s going to happen (with restrictions and the season).”
Silsden are 14th after a mixed eight games which saw them win three and lose five. Forrest expects an improvement when his side get into a run of fixtures.
“In the summer we recruited really well and we were really optimistic,” he said.
“Where we are now I don’t think any manager would want to be there. At the same time I’m quite realistic about the challenges we have faced.
“We want to be higher and we’ll keep going about our business and I’m sure we’ll pick up some good results. We were on a good run at the end of last season so we have shown we can compete with the resources we have.
“We’ll keep going about our business and we do want to do better. We have been on the end of some heavy defeats but we have had a lot of odd goal defeats where we haven’t been good enough. But some of the games you play in this league are on a knife-edge.
“A lot of it is a mentality thing and it is how you react after a defeat. We want to do better, that’s the bottom line I suppose.”
Although he admits he did not expect the season to return so soon.
“It (having no football) has been a big void in some people’s lives but the return to the game caught me a little bit,” he said.
“I thought it would be January. The second lockdown came and as soon as that got lifted we had a plan to return to training to get some minutes in the legs anyway.
“We knew coming back on the 19th wasn’t out of the question but I thought it would be January so I was bit surprised.
“I thought the sensible thing to do was to leave it until January and after a tough year for everyone, let everyone have time with their families and have a good Christmas.
“On a personal level, football on Boxing Day has been part of my life as long as I can remember so it is not really an issue and I know looking at the bigger picture that there is games to get in and I know it is going to be difficult.”
Forrest also revealed that he has found the season difficult on a personal level.
“I think personally it has taken a toll, it is tiring,” he added.
“It has been stop-start, frustrating and I think I can speak on behalf of a lot of managers.
“My love has not gone, I’m still as passionate and hungry as I ever have been but yes I have to admit it has been the most frustrating time. That’s the world we’re living in right now.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the most challenging period. Trying to get those motivational levels going and keeping everyone going is tough. Sometimes you’re responsible for a full club and trying to lead that is tiring.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.
