'Shape up or ship out' warns Pewsey Vale boss (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

'Shape up or ship out' warns Pewsey Vale boss

11:50pm Thursday 20th November 2008 in Football By Iain Liddle

Pewsey Vale travel to Trowbridge Town this weekend and joint manager Steve Wootton has told his players to shape up or ship out in an effort to improve their stuttering form.

The boss was alarmed at how rapidly some of squad faded in last week’s 5-0 defeat at Purton and said they must improve their fitness if they are to have any hopes of making progress.

“Some of the players need to put a bit of extra work in if they want to compete with the better clubs in the division,” he said.

“I’m talking about what they get up to on a Friday night, some don’t take their football as seriously as those in teams in higher in the table.

“If you want to win games consistently then sometimes that means sacrifices and giving up things that you don’t want to.

The game against local neighbours Trowbridge carries great significance, not just because of the proximity of the clubs, but rather their closeness in the league.

Theirs hosts this weekend sit second from bottom with Pewsey just one place and one point above them.

Wootton revealed that they will go into the game without in-form goalkeeper Richard Payne, who is away on holiday.

“It’s a local derby and they are close to us in the league, so it’s probably the worst time he could have gone away,” he said.

“It will be a tight game because both sides will fancy their chances and they always have a good crowd there.

“If I took away Saturday’s performance then we’ve been in every game we’ve played in. We’ve always had chances to win games but we’ve just not put them away.

“The players have held their hands up and we can only hope to put it right this weekend.”

There are no new injuries for the managers to worry about Matty Messenger, who made his return from injury against Purton last week, should also feature.