MORELL MAISON today admitted he didn’t know where Chester City’s next goal was going to come from.
The Blues Director of Football, who has taken over the supervision of the depleted Chester squad’s training sessions since manager Jim Harvey left the club last month, is being forced to field a threadbare side for tomorrow’s home league match against Ebbsfleet United at the Deva Stadium (3pm).
Maison underlined the worrying situation that exists both on and off the pitch at the crisis-hit club who remain anchored to the foot of the Blue Square Premier Division table, 29 points adrift of safety.
Leading goalscorer Nick Chadwick and midfielders Anthony Barry and James Owen have all left the club during Maison’s short spell at the helm, and both Rhys Meynell and Kevin Roberts have this week served 14-day notice on terminating their contracts with the troubled club.
Meynell has attracted interest from new Kidderminster Harriers boss Steve Burr and Roberts has attracted interest from Cambridge United.
Maison said: “I’m fully aware that we don’t carry a goal threat at the moment and because of that fact I don’t know where our next goal is coming from.
“We are in a difficult situation with experienced players wanting to move away from the club because they haven’t been paid, and the majority of the squad consists of young boys.
“We were forced to defend in depth at Mansfield in our last match and there was a siege mentality about the way we played because we didn’t want to concede goals.
“Winning points remains our priority, but we have to shore things up in defence to stand any chance of picking up any points.”
Maison confirmed that City would be without club captain Tim Ryan tomorrow who serves the second of his two-game suspension for accumulating 10 bookings which is carried over from last Saturday’s postponed home game against Grays Athletic.
Maison said: “We are without Tim tomorrow who serves a suspension, but Kevin Roberts and Rhys Meynell are both in my plans despite both telling me they want to leave the club.
“At the moment we only have nine players and the rest are scholars from the academy, so the team virtually picks itself – it’s the nine players we have plus the best of the academy kids.
“It’s far from an ideal situation and we are certainly not going to win many games with that set-up, so we need to solve our problems fairly rapidly if we are going to have any chance.”