Heroes: Joe Vines (left) and keeper Dave King applaud the Tooting fans after their 2-0 win over Worthing last night. Deadlinepix Chris Gray CG0092
Tooting & Mitcham assistant boss George Wakeling hailed Joe Vines after the centre back inspired his side to a Ryman League Division One South play-off final berth.
The 27-year-old had played only an hour of first team football since breaking his leg earlier this year, before playing a full part in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Worthing.
Brother Paul struck both goals inside the first 11 minutes and was named man-of-the-match, but Wakeling believes his sibling who should claim the plaudits after helping his side keep a clean sheet.
"Paul scored two goals, but there are others who deserve a huge pat on the back for that performance," he said.
"For Joe to have been out for so long and then come back like he did was immense.
"He is a powerful lad and makes a huge difference to us."
advertisement
Tooting will now host the winners of tomorrow's match between Cray Wanderers and Met Police in Saturday's final at Imperial Fields.
"We are hoping Joe is going to be fit for Saturday because two big games in a week for him is a big ask," added Wakeling.
"If he isn't right we won't play him, but I am confident he'll be okay."
Wakeling and boss Billiy Smith have had both Cray and the Police watched a total of eight times and Terrors are leaving nothing to chance in their bid to win promotion.
And Wakeling admits it is time for the team to put last season's 2-0 play-off final defeat to Hastings behind them.
"We have had two exciting years here. Some teams take years to achieve what we have in this division," he added.
"I think we have everything to lose. Our players are good enough to play at the next level and we need to make that step.
"If we don't go up this time I would think there will be one or two clubs sniffing around our players, looking to nick one or two.
"The players need that extra challenge and so do me and Billy."
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
