Puritans boss backs marksman McDonagh to deliver

McDonagh bagged his ninth goal of the campaign for the Puritans in Saturday’s 5-0 Evo-Stik Southern League victory over Hayes & Yeading United. And Ford was delighted for McDonagh, who turned down a move a few days earlier.

Ford said: “Conor has scored goals at Conference South level when he was with me at Oxford City. He’s got nine goals now and he could get us 20 this season so that’s why I wanted to keep hold of him.

“Conor has been playing on his own in previous games but he did a lot better with two strikers up front.”

But Ford emphasised the importance of all his players being able to get their fair share of goals. There were five different scorers against Hayes & Yeading and Ford said: “I’m not sure we’ve got a 25-goal striker here, although I’m sure Ricky Johnson and Conor McDonagh to disagree with that! So it’s important other players get goals and we had five different scorers on Saturday.

“I’ve got a lot of attacking players here, not necessary strikers, but ones who can get forward.”