ALTHOUGH his full-back’s debut appearance this season may not have ended as he wanted, Witham Town manager Adam Flint feels Liam Whipps’ display at Brentwood Town can help to encourage young players at the club.

Whipps made his first Bostik League division north appearance of the campaign at Brentwood and scored Witham’s opening goal, before Damien Green added the winner late on to give them a 2-1 win.

The game may have ended with Whipps being shown a second yellow card to be sent off, but boss Flint feels other young players looking to emerge through Witham’s youth and reserve teams can see that there is a pathway for them to take into senior football.

Flint said: “Liam scored a great goal from 30 yards and that was great, but he’s new to this level and dived in for the second yellow so I could see why he got it.

“It was his first start this year and he’s only just 19 so he will learn from it.

“He’s one who has come through the under-18s and the reserves so we’ve given him his chance and I think he did alright.

“To be honest, we’ve given a number of young players who have come through their chance so the club’s younger ones know there is a pathway through to the first team for them. It’s just up to them to take their chances and if it doesn’t work out then they need to watch and learn and come back stronger when the opportunity comes again.

“It’s the same with Chi (Chinedu Osadebe) - he’s another who has come through and he said he knows he will keep getting chances.

“You want young players to have that type of patience because too often you see them get frustrated if it doesn’t work out straight away and they end up playing at lower levels.”

Witham followed the win at Brentwood with a 1-1 draw at Dereham Town on Tuesday as Ryan Imbert fired in an 82nd minute equaliser.

It was a great result after a long midweek trip to face a side sitting in the top five but after three games on the road they are back at the Village Glass Stadium on Saturday when Mildenhall will be the visitors and Flint is expecting a test. He added: “It will be nice not having to travel for a change but we know it won’t be easy.

Continued on page 54 “I’ve watched Mildenhall when they played in the FA Cup and they have a lovely set-up.

“I felt they were unlucky when I saw them against Sudbury and they have an experienced lad up front, Danny Crow, who has been at Luton, Peterborough and Norwich and he is very quick so we will have to be solid ourselves.

“The league is so tight at the moment.

“If we win on Saturday then we could go up to seventh or eighth and that wouldn’t be a bad start for us considering things haven’t really gone our way too much.

“It’s important to find form at home because we have to make our place a fortress.

“It’s something we need to work on.

“We seem to like midweek games under the lights, but we need to make it a fortress in every game.

“That’s where teams who get promoted always do well; you always see them have strong home form and we need to do that as well.”