Hadleigh United boss will not risk bringing back last season's top scorer Kyron Andrews from injury too soon

Hadleigh United manager Shane Wardley has said he will not risk bringing back last season’s top goalscorer Kyron Andrews from injury too soon, writes Alex Moss.

The tricky frontman, who topped the scoring charts at the Millfield in 2017/18 with 14 goals, has been out on the sidelines after breaking his ankle back in May.

Andrews has been featuring for Hadleigh’s reserve side in the Thurlow Nunn Reserve League in recent weeks, starting one game and coming off the bench in another, and Wardley has admitted the former Felixstowe & Walton United and Ipswich Wanderers man is eager to get back involved in the first-team set-up.

“Kyron broke his ankle in the last home game of last season,” Wardley said.

“He’s been itching to get back. He’s fit and raring to go, but we’re mindful that he’s not had a pre-season.

“He needs to build the minutes up, so we’ve been including him with the reserves the last few weeks.

“He’s eager to get back involved with us, but we’ve told him to be patient. With the injury that he’s had, we don’t want him to go and pick up any niggles.”

On Saturday, the Brettsiders snapped a three-match losing run with a hard-fought 3-2 win against Norwich United at the Millfield.

Hadleigh twice took the lead, through Kyle Ferguson and Romario Dunne, only for the visitors, who were playing a league higher in the Bostik League North Division last season, to peg them back.

George Crowe scored what proved to be the winner in an enthralling start to the second half, which saw three goals scored inside the first 14 minutes after the restart.

The victory has seen Hadleigh (18th) open up a three-point gap on the bottom two, ahead of a trip to Whitton United this Saturday (3pm).

“We played really well against Norwich,” Wardley said. “We played with confidence, which is what we keep telling them to do.

“We thought the Bury (Town) game was going to kick-start our season, but we then went and dropped points. Hopefully we can go on a run now.”