YATE TOWN manager Rob Cousins insists no clubs have made an approach to sign star striker Scott Wilson yet.

Dagenham and Redbridge are amongst several Football League clubs rumoured to be interested in the former Bristol City trainee, whose stock has risen considerably since joining Yate at the start of the year.

The 20-year-old has scored in all-but one of his seven appearances so far, notching his tenth goal for the club in the 3-1 Southern League Division One South & West win over Wimborne Town on Tuesday night.

Wilson is yet to sign a contract with Yate, but Cousins remains hopeful that an agreement can be reached with the division’s top scorer. “We are trying to keep him on board,” said Cousins.

“In terms of the contract talks, we talked to him before and the ball is in his court.

“If someone is top of the goalscoring charts you’re going to hear that (speculation), but he’s still young and learning the game and hopefully we can contribute to help him improve.
 

“We’re not going to stand in his way of going to a bigger club but he has no intentions of leaving.

“We just want him to concentrate on what he’s doing and what will be will be.”

Cousins is on the lookout for another striker with Mitchell Page ruled out for three to four weeks after picking up an injury in the 2-1 win over Cirencester last Saturday, but will not be able to bring in a new face before the weekend.

Assistant manager Michael Meaker, 41, took Page’s place in the side against Wimborne and scored the third goal as Yate climbed into the play-offs for the first time this season, having been bottom of the table as recently as December.

“It’s been hard work just to get there, but we are in this position with a two-game cushion on teams below us,” said Cousins.

“It’s better to be in the position now than where we were ten weeks ago.

“Losing Mitchell Page is a big blow but we’ve got good players to come on and Meaker scored a goal.

“The confidence and belief is there. It wasn’t one of our best performances, but that was dictated by a difficult pitch and a good side because Wimborne made it difficult for us.

“We ground out another win and showed another side to our game with our resilience.

“We’ve worked extremely hard and we deserve to be where we are.
 

“The morale’s good and the team spirit is good so we’ve just got to keep on plugging away."

Yate have now won their last nine games – a post-war club record – and they are unbeaten in 13, but those runs will be severely tested when they visit league leaders Hungerford on Saturday.

Cousins said: “They are the current league leaders but we’ve got to go there with no fear.

“It will be difficult to keep the winning run going but we’ll strive to do so.

“We’ve beaten them at home and they will be just as wary of us. Hopefully we will come away with something.”

Next Wednesday, Yate visit Sholing, who have only lost two games at home despite their lowly league position.