LANGLEY manager John Thirkell has opened his heart on the pride he feels towards his team after a 3-2 win at Singh Sabha in the East Berkshire Football League Cup on Saturday.

Thirkell, 68, came out of retirement to manage the Premier Division champions, who have a perfect winning record in the league this season and have three cup semi-finals and a final to look forward to.

Langley fell a goal behind and had a player sent off against Singh Sabha but recovered to win thanks to two goals from Ben White plus a Dean Papali strike.

Thirkell told the Observer: “I’m proud of the lads. They work hard, train every Wednesday and have not let me down.

“We have a meeting before each game, everyone turns up on time and we have a proper warm-up. We want to make it as professional as we can for this standard and the lads have reacted to it.

“It was the best thing for me, to come out of retirement and work with these lads, and I’m really proud of them, they’ve been fantastic.

“Paolo Cicero (captain and coach) and I have a fantastic relationship and it’s exciting times as well. All the lads are enjoying it and the set up is brilliant.”

Commenting on the win in the League Cup quarter-finals, he said: “It was a hard-fought game when we went down to 10-men but we grabbed a couple of goals.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Ben White (pictured playing for new defunct club Alpha Arms) scored twice for Langley in the League Cup win on Saturday.

“There was not a lot of quality in the game. You just had to roll your sleeves up and get out there, which is what we did.

“We were 2-1 down and playing with 10-men but managed to nick a couple of goals.

“We won it in injury time, but if we had to play extra time we would have done so with just eight players because of a few problems.”

Thirkell continued: "We're in three semi-finals and a final and we still need to win all our league games including two against Delaford, and that could sort it all out.

"I can't wait for Good Friday and the Slough Town Senior Cup final.

"Singh Sabha are not a bad side. We've played them before and they gave us a proper game.

"I prefer those type of games rather than winning five or six-nil because you get more enjoyment out of it.

"We will come into our own when we get onto a good pitch because we're a good footballing side. We get it down and play well which is very rare for this standard. We will look forward to decent pitches and a bit of sun on our backs.

"There's an opportunity for the lads if they want to take it but there will be some big sides along the way.

"There are some big games coming up including 10 in the league. I'm not sure how and when we're going to fit them all in but the squad is big enough."

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