CLUB NEWS
Three loanees join club
Wealdstone has announced that three players have joined the club on season-long loans.
18-year-old Morrocan attacking midfielder
Rafiq Khaleel has joined on a season-long loan from League Two side Crawley Town. Khaleel made two appearances for Crawley last season in league action but spent most of the season in their reserve side. Khaleel made 21 appearances, scored four goals, and registered three assists.
"I really like his creativity on the ball," said manager Drew Welch. "That combined with the overall speed in his game will be a great asset to us. He can play behind the strikers as an attacking midfielder but he can also drop deeper and play there as well. I'm excited to work with the kid this season."
20-year-old English midfielder
Sam Cornish has joined on a season-long loan from League Two side Colchester United. Last season, Cornish made one sub appearance for Colchester but spent the majority of the season in their reserve side. Cornish made 22 appearances for the reserve side where he scored two goals. Cornish had made four appearances, including two starts, for Colchester this season, but they felt he needed more regular playing time for his development.
"I love his work rate," said Welch. "He is the very definition of a box-to-box midfielder. He will fit in very nicely here."
17-year-old Australian midfielder
Rick Pickert has joined on a season-long loan from Championship side Watford. A recent graduate of the Watford Academy, Pickert is an unknown commodity, but Welch seems to like what he sees from the youngster.
"For a kid, and that's what he is, he can already play at this level," said Welch. "He has great pace on the ball and he's got a motor that just doesn't stop. The thing I really like about him is at his age, he's already mastered the art of just making the simple play. A lot of times, the game is too fast and these young kids try to make something out of nothing. You obviously want that from an attacking midfielder, but not from a guy who's playing deeper. I think his future is very bright."
"We had a gaping hole in midfield and these loans fix that," said GM Michael Shaw. "I would've preferred permanent signings, but we kept swinging and missing on guys. We're too deep into the season for this to still be a problem, so we went the loan route. We got three guys who can play at this level, and thanks to our connection with Watford, one of them didn't even cost us a pound. So that's always a plus."
Wealdstone advance; will face Waterford
Two second-half goals by Sam Cornish and Michee Efete propelled Wealdstone to a 2-0 victory over Motherwell B in the third round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.
"We didn't really have any major goals for this competition other than giving some guys further down the depth chart some run," said Welch. "So to advance to the quarterfinals is very pleasing. I'm very happy for the lads who maybe don't get to play as much as they would like and it gives me some things to think about. Which is a good problem to have."
Wealdstone has been drawn against Irish Premier Division side Waterford FC in the quarterfinals. Waterford entered the competition in the third round where they defeated Scottish Championship side Dunfermline Athletic 3-2. In the fourth round, Waterford defeated Scottish League Two side Forfar Athletic 3-2.
Wealdstone crash out of FA Cup; lose replay to Alfreton
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A disappointing end to Wealdstone's FA Cup run as the club crashes out in the fourth qualifying round following a 1-0 loss to National League North side Alfreton Town.
"Very disappointed and very frustrated with how things turned out across both games," said Welch. "Give credit to Alfreton, they played their game. But my goodness they set the game of football back several decades."
Alfreton was perfectly content to just sit back and defend and only managed one shot the entire game. Unfortunately for Wealdstone, that one shot off a corner kick deflected off Josh Meekings and found its way into the back of the net.
Finishing proved to be Wealdstone's downfall across both legs, only managing to get five shots on target out of a total of 18.
Medical Center
WB Micheel Efete suffered a twisted ankle in Wealdstone's 0-0 draw against Alfreton on October 16th. He is expected to be out for an additional two to three weeks with a projected return date of November 13th.
ST Christian Norton suffered a pulled hamstring in Wealdstone's 2-0 win over Eastleigh on October 30th. He is expected to be out for two to three weeks with a projected return date of November 11th.
Fans Choice Voting
1. GK Jacob Russell - 8 apps, 3 shutouts, 8 conceded, 25 saves, 7.1 match rating
2. ST Dominic Hutchinson - 7+1 apps, 1 goal, 1 assist, 2.06 xG, 6.9 match rating
3. CB Connor Stevens - 7+1 apps, 6.8 match rating
We call that taking a step back.
I guess we could call this a sophomore slump. The second year has been a lot tougher than last season. We're dealing with a couple of injury issues, which is something that we didn't really have to deal with last season.
Our main issue is we're not converting chances. Last season, we ranked 3rd in the league in scoring. So far this year, we rank 12th. We have one of the worst conversion rates in the league at 9%. That's why we are languishing squarely in the upper midtable. There's still plenty of time to fix this, so there's no need to hit the panic button just yet. Once our new midfield gets more acclimated to playing with each other, I feel we'll be okay.
