Archived News from April 2007
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HODGE RECALLED BY BLACKBURN
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Hodge recall is latest blow for Stags
CHAD website, 18 April 2007 IT gets no better for threadbare Mansfield Town as midfield youngster Bryan Hodge was today recalled by Premiership Blackburn Rovers. It leaves manager Bily Dearden without 10 of the players he might have started in his side for Saturday's trip to Rochdale. And, if none of his injured stars are fit to travel by then, he will be down to a squad of 12 players, including his two keepers! Hodge (19) made a Man of the Match debut in his first game against Wycombe Wanderers on 24th February and the Scottish U20 international loked a hot prospect. But that same night he was arrested for drink-driving in Blackpool, given a three-year driving ban, and never quite recaptured the form of that first game. In total Hodge, who had never played League football before that debut, made nine starts for the Stags. The football club stressed the decision had come from Blackburn's end. Manager Dearden said: "We keep getting problem after problem at the moment and no doubt there will be more tomorrow when I go in. "All I can do is leave it until the last minute and see who we have for Saturday. "I will recall Chris Wood from Ilkeston to make up the numbers. The only ones who have any chance of being fit by Saturday are Simon Brown and Stephen Dawson so I would still need another kid to make up a 16 even if they were both passed fit. "It's a shame Blackburn have recalled Bryan. I only got to know about it this morning. "I don't know if that will be it with him here. We will have to wait and see what happens with him over the summer." DEARDEN DEFENDS DECISION NOT TO BOOST STAGS Evening Post, 18 April 2007 Billy Dearden insists he has no regrets about not strengthening his squad ahead of the transfer deadline. The Stags boss (right) extended Bryan Hodge's loan from Blackburn until the end of the season, but he brought in no other fresh faces. Since then the team has been hit by a catalogue of injuries with ten players either out or carrying knocks. But Dearden feels it was impossible to foresee the situation. He said: "I probably could have brought some more players in but, at the time, I thought I had enough. "Had we been going for the play-offs, then I might have wanted more bodies. "But injuries to the likes of Jake Buxton and Jonathan D'Laryea have come at a difficult time and made it hard for us. "I have been thinking it is going to get better, but it's been going the other way." Mansfield have gone seven games without a win to slide down the League Two table after briefly pulling themselves into the top half. |
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