Lancaster City boss Mark Fell hails form of midfielder Paul Dawson

‘Top drawer’ Paul Dawson is a major injury doubt for Lancaster City ahead of this weekend’s home clash against Ashton United.
Paul Dawson.Paul Dawson.
Paul Dawson.

The cultured midfielder has been in sparkling form in recent weeks during the Dolly Blues’ rise to sixth in the NPL Premier Division table.

He has scored six goals in the past six games, including the only goal of the game in the victory over Matlock Town at Giant Axe on Saturday.

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Dawson – who hails from Lancaster – also notched on Tuesday evening as City battled to a 2-2 draw away at Warrington Town, but unfortunately picked up a slight knock.

Aged only 20, Fell believes Dawson is a player who has the ability to play higher up the football pyramid in the future as along as he can smooth out the rough edges in his game.

“Paul is playing really well,” said Fell.

“We don’t want to stop his aggression because that’s what makes him as a player.

“But he got booked early on Tuesday night which caused us a bit of concern, so we shifted him out to the right wing.

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“His quality in terms of his quality on the ball and delivery into the box is not in question.

“He’s fast becoming the focal point of our team – he can do stuff which others can’t do.

“He’s still got rough edges to his game and he knows what he needs to which is to get fitter and cut some of the petulence out. He’s top drawer at this level – there’s nobody better in this division in terms of his ball striking and ability to break from midfield.

“Our job is now to ward off any interest from other clubs which is inevitable when you have got a midfielder who scores six goals in six games.”

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City certainly put a marker down at the weekend when they got the better of Matlock who had been the early pacesetters in the division.

To back that up with a draw at Warrington – who are expected to be up near the top at the end of the season – was also pleasing for Fell.

“I thought we were very good on Saturday and deserved the win. Warrington are strong from a finance perspectiveand they have got good players, a good manager, they work hard and I expect them to be up there.

“Our injury situation meant We were very much down to the bare bones.

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“We had seven players missing – five were playing out of position.It was very much as case of square pegs in round holes.

“We would have been happy with a point from there with a full-strength squad but the fact that we were down to the bare bones makes it even better.”

City were without Charlie Bailey, Jack Armer, Brad Carsley, Matty Blinkhorn, Luke Thompson and Jason Walker through injury, while Niall Cowperthaite was suspended.