Wick still in hunt for promotion - Baldwin

Josh Irish and George Cody scored at the double, while new recruit David Crouch also struck as Wick sealed a first Southern Combination League Division 1 win in four by beating Storrington 5-0 on Saturday.

A much-needed success addressed Wick’s recent slide down the table – moving them up a place to fifth, above Bexhill United.

With nine games left this season, Baldwin’s team are 11 points off a promotion spot but do have a game in hand.

Wick were top earlier in the season and boss Baldwin sees no reason why they can’t seal an immediate return back to the SCFL Premier Division this term.

He said: “The target for us now is to finish as well as we can and see where that takes us.

“We’ve got a really young squad, for most of the team this is their first full season in senior football, so it was always going to be tough.

“The performance against Storrington was really good, near where we were at the start of the season.”

“We’ve brought David (Crouch) in from Pagham and he impressed. He and Josh (Irish) played together growing up, you could see the connection.

“The aim now is to build on this. Football is all about momentum, we just need to get on a run and see where it takes us.”

Irish got the opener after eight minutes, then Cody netted his first of the afternoon 20 minutes later.

Irish netted his second on the hour, before Crouch got in on the act four minutes later.

A comprehensive win was then capped off with Cody nothching his second eight minutes from time.

Former Wick assistant manager Ryan Pharo has depart Crabtree Park. Baldwin revealed he does not plan to replace his previous number two this season.

He added: “Myself and Ryan (Pharo) have decided to go separate ways. I’ve stripped things back so to speak, we’ll see how it goes.”

Wick host second-from-bottom Billingshurst on Saturday, then welcome basement boys Southwick three days later.

WICK: Belcher; Eyres, Barratt, Ediker, Bingham; Hawkes, Connolly, Weir, Cody; Irish, Crouch. Subs: Beck (Weir), Northeast (Ediker), Hillier (Bingham).