Greenock Telegraph | Sport | Ambitious Wanderers are aiming for the Premiership

Friday, 9th January, 2009

Published: Wednesday, 22nd August, 2007 16:30

Ambitious Wanderers are aiming for the Premiership

By Chris Fitzgerald

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FORMIDABLE PARTNERSHIP: Wanderers captain Davie Craven, left, and president Donnie Cunningham.

Pic by: Douglas Hendry

Greenock Wanderers are busy preparing for one of the most important and difficult seasons in their long and distinguished 134-year history.

Clubhouse redevelopment has required operations to move to the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club on the Esplanade. The rebuild has also meant the majority of Wanderers’ 1st XV league matches up until Christmas will be played away from home.

There are no easy fixtures in the First Division of the National League and the locals will have to hit the ground running and perform to their optimum away from home in order to sustain a promotion challenge this season.

President Donnie Cunningham said: “It is a unique situation, but the positive aspect is that come Christmas time we will have an excellent new clubhouse facility and a lot of home league games to play in front of our home support.

“The management committee and the players are well aware of what we face and we are looking forward to the challenge and doing all we can to make our exile from Fort Matilda as comfortable as possible.

“The Boat Club members have been fantastic and the players have got on with it without complaint. The attitude has been great and I know the coaches and captain will have the squad ready for the big kick-off on 1 September.”

Head coach Dave McVey is joined this year by assistant coach Iain Forster, a PE teacher by profession and a young man who enjoyed success on the pitch in his own right prior to a knee injury.

Forster played his rugby with Wanderers, Kilmarnock and Dalziel and was also involved with Scottish International age group squads, the Scottish Thistles and Glasgow District.

With predecessor Paul Tyler standing down owing to work commitments, Forster’s appointment is inspired due to the knowledge he will bring to the squad and, in particular, the back division. His infectious enthusiasm is already evident in the squad sessions.

Wanderers will be captained this season by prop forward Dave Craven, who arrived at the club last year from Australian side Coffs Harbour. Craven is a no-nonsense tight forward who played at a high level in Oz and was selected for New South Wales Country to play against the touring Scottish National side in 2004.

Craven enjoyed a successful first season at Fort Matilda and was the natural choice to take on this season’s captaincy.

Craven’s vice-captain will be hard-tackling centre Chris Clark and the leadership this duo bring to the squad will be vital if success is to be achieved.

As well as building a new clubhouse, Wanderers are effectively constructing a new team.

With foreign imports David Feketi and Hayden Buckman back home in New Zealand, and Dougie Smith, Jono Wright and Grant Anderson moved on to pastures new, the opportunity is there for more youngsters to step off the conveyor belt of talent down Fort Matilda way and stake a claim for a starting berth in the top team.

Quality young players like Brendan McGroarty, Calum Robb, Jason Smith, Jamie Mooney and Andy McDougall have all come through the ranks recently and there are plenty more hopefuls waiting in the wings.

Cunningham added: “I think we have a good blend of youth and experience this season.

“As well as some very talented youngsters, we have seasoned players like Graham Finnie, David Murray, Graham Mooney, Kevin Murray and Jamie Birch all raring to go. I’m sure their experience will come into play throughout the campaign. Getting the mix right will be an interesting challenge for the coaches, but it’s a good problem to have at this stage of pre-season.”

Wanderers have already enjoyed a worthwhile training match at the Greenyards against Melrose and have arranged a further friendly at Ardrossan on Saturday in an effort to fine tune their preparations ahead of their opening league fixture away at Preston Lodge FP on 1 September.

Much hard work remains to be done on the training field, but the signs are competition for places will be fierce, which can only augur well for the club’s ambitions this season.

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