Toolstation NCEL Division One
Yorkshire Amateur captain Tom Rose broke his nose at Worsbrough Bridge last night
Yorkshire Amateur have lost captain Tom Rose for the last month of the season after sustaining a compound fracture to his nose at Worsbrough Bridge.
Rose has had an operation to remove bone from the open nose fracture since going to hospital late night. It is yet another blow that the Ammers have taken this season.
“I can’t believe it and it sums up our luck this season,” joint manager Phil Harding told Non League Yorkshire.
“Tom is a big player for us, he’s scored 15 goals this season. I’m absolutely devastated for him.”
Rose’s injury is the latest tale of woe for the Ammers. His predecessor as captain, defender Daniel Freeman, was ruled out for the season in the autumn.
The Ammers are also onto their fourth goalkeeper. Suruwa Bojang was the first to become badly injured. His replacement Christopher Barrow lasted two games before damaging his cruciate.
The run of bad luck continued with young Danny King who broke his collarbone at Eccleshill United in February.
Former Garforth Town stopper Ben Hunter is their current number one and Harding said: “I’ve never known anything like it.
“What’s next? When Danny King did his collarbone at Eccleshill I thought ‘I feel sorry for the next goalkeeper coming to Ammers’.
“Ben is a really good goalkeeper so he has come in and given us a massive boost, but earlier in the season the swapping and changing of goalkeepers did disrupt us.”
The injury list has put pay to their hopes of reaching the play-offs. The remaining task is securing an FA Cup place for next season by finishing in the top ten.
The Ammers currently hold tenth spot and Harding said: “It is in our hands, we have Selby at home and Teversal away to play and they’re our two nearest challengers.
“If we don’t do it, it would be a massive disappointment. At one stage we had five or six-games-in-hand and we were about eight points clear on the teams below us.
“Where’s it all gone? It is that bad run of winning one, losing one, winning one, drawing one. We haven’t put a run together this season.
“Last year we had seven wins and a draw. We should have built on last season and we should have been up towards or in the play-offs.”
Next up for the Ammers is a trip to play-offs hopefuls Penistone Church, 48 hours on from the 2-2 draw at Worsbrough. The Ammers needed a freak last minute goal from Adam Shaw to secure a point.
“I don’t begrudge Worsbrough because look how hard they worked,” Harding added.
“They have got some good players. Brad Kerr is a top player in my opinion and he caused us problems. What they showed and how they battled, they’re going to stay up.
“I am disappointed because of the chances we had when it was 1-0. There again Ben made a point-blank save at 0-0 so it could have gone their way.
“I’ll say I’m happy to get the 2-2 draw because it was the 90th minute.”