Say Hello To Will Bates

To say that Will Bates has made a decent start to his Rangers career would be an understatement! Within the space of two substitute appearances, equaling no more than 50 minutes, his goal tally already stands at an impressive four!

Of course, being as modest as Will is, he is quick to play this down insisting that it is just beginners’ luck, but with the above stats, it’s no surprise that he already has the Rangers faithful and his teammates casting impressed looks his way.

Having played most of his football at Spartan South Midlands Premier League side Harpenden Town, Will joined us after a year out of the game, and following his first training session during the week, he made his debut against Hartshead on Saturday 12th January.

Our Media Officer caught up with the man himself after the 4-1 win against Leeds Modernians and grabbed a few words from him.

Not a bad way to introduce yourself to the club with two goals last week on your debut and another brace on your home debut!

"I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been good. I’ve been welcomed into Rangers and feel good about the club. So far it has gone well and I’m very happy."

Talk us through the goals that you scored today, the first one took a couple of attempts to score, but the second one you absolutely buried.

"The first one I think I was lucky with to get the second chance to hit it, but fortunately I did, and it went in. The second one I was very happy with. Milky put in a great pass to pick me out and I was able to hit it well as the pass was at just the right speed and it went in. So yeah, very pleased."

It’s been a while since you played last and have just come back into the game following some time out, but it doesn’t seem to show when you are on the pitch.

(Laughing) “Well it does help when you come on and everyone else is tired! Having not played for a year, I need to get my fitness back, but I’m working on it and I’ll get there."

What have you made of our club so far?

"It’s a really good set up, there seems to be a lot of solid organisation that goes on around the club, which was one of the reasons that persuaded me to join Rangers and with everyone being so welcoming, it has been really easy to get involved and on with everyone."

Speaking to Will, you get the sense of someone who doesn’t get carried away easily and is very grounded. It may have only been a couple of weeks, but his movement on and off the ball, his shooting and positional play seem to be pretty impressive and, as both he and Dan Marshall have pointed out, will only get better as his fitness increases and match sharpness returns.

With Roman Neal leaving in two weeks, it seems like Dan has found another player to partner, Josh, Danny and Charlie, and that is an exciting prospect as each of the quadruplet bring something different to the pitch. To finish, Will is at pains to also point out that it’s early days, but, so far so good for our new striker!

See Will's goals against Leeds Modernians below