SHOLING haven’t had the best of luck with injuries since rejoining the Southern One South & West.

So to have central defender Pete Castle doing the warm-up before Wednesday’s 1-0 league win over Fleet Town was a sight for sore eyes.

Castle, one of the defensive king-pins of last season’s triumphant FA Vase/Sydenhams Premier double, has been sidelined since Wembley after undergoing knee surgery.

But his long-awaited comeback could be less than a month away – and it can’t come a moment too soon for co-boss Mick Marsh.

“We need Pete’s experience and leadership,” he admitted. “He played for most of the last part of last season with a bad injury so we’ll see the best of Pete when he comes back, hopefully in early to mid-October.

“He’s dying to get back into the game. It’ll be like having a new player.”

Castle’s strength and experience would have come in handy tomorrow when Sholing host a tricky FA Cup first qualifying round tie against Southern Premier Division outfit Chippenham Town.

Neither side is in the best of form.

The mid-table Bluebirds are in a sticky patch of two draws and two defeats in their last four league games.

Sholing are 18th in the South & West, but will be boosted by Wednesday’s 1-0 home win over Fleet which helped erase the memory of last Saturday’s 7-1 mauling at Merthyr.

“In adversity you pull together and we did that on the coach home from Wales,” said Marsh. “The lads realised their own personal standards were not good enough.

“In a way the FA Cup’s come at the wrong time. It would have been nice to have kept things going with another league game.”

Sholing are again without injured trio Barry Mason, Alex Baldacchino and Jack Smith, while striker Nathan Lynch is suspended.