Date: 23rd July 2010
LIVERPOOL DAILY POST
Liverpool skipper Andy Rogers believes that the undoubted class of Steve Nealey and Ashley MacDonald will help his team climb the First Division table over the second half of the season.The pair have not yet scored the weight of runs expected of them so far this summer, and Liverpool's ninth place in the league makes the Aigburth side one of four mid-table clubs covered by six points. "Ashley scored 823 runs last year but he's only got 229 this season," said Rogers. "Steve's scored around 700 runs in each of the last five seasons but he's having a bad trot at the moment. I'm absolutely confident his form will return though."
Liverpool are at home to Maghull tomorrow and Rogers remains convinced that it is not too late for his team's fortunes to be transformed. "It's been a funny season really because although we started badly and have lost our last two games, we're still only a couple of wins away from the top three," he said.
And while he is waiting for some of his team's expected sources of runs to resume normal service, Rogers has been grateful for the form of his Australian all-rounder Daniel Burns, whose 307 runs in June earned him the Bridging Finance NW Batsman of the Month award."We had a slight change of policy over the winter because we opted to sign a young first-grade cricketer rather than an overseas player with first-class experience," he said. "Daniel's played for Australia Under 19s and the New South Wales second team, so he came with a decent pedigree, and while he may not have taken the number of wickets he'd have liked to, his batting's really come on."
While Burns tops the run scoring list at Aigburth with 398 runs, Liverpool's leading wicket-taker is the veteran Iain Handley with 25 scalps to his credit. "That's a great effort by Iain on our flat wickets," said Rogers, "But we've also been grateful for the bowling of seamer Luke Lynch, who's been an out and out strike bowler for us. That's been particularly useful because a combination of work and university commitments has restricted Christian Edwards's availability."
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