SWINDON Supermarine boss Dave Webb will be careful what he wishes for in the future as he prepares to welcome two midfielders back to his squad for this weekend’s clash with Shortwood United.

Chris Taylor and summer signing Joe Shepherd both missed the opening weekend of the new Southern League Division One South & West season but the pair are due to return from holiday in time for Marine’s third match of the campaign on Saturday.

“I’ve always been one of the local managers that has called for the season to start earlier – maybe I won’t do that again,” said the Webb’s Wood chief.

“Chris Taylor has been away honeymooning after his recent wedding and Joe Shepherd has been on a three-week holiday in Florida.

“They’re both professional players and they went away fully expecting the season to begin on August 16.

“But as fate would have it, the season began on August 9. It’s going to be good to have them back and they should hopefully freshen things up for us a bit.”

Meanwhile, Webb revealed that ‘one or two’ players have recently been shown the door by Marine for not ‘acting in the way we expect’.

But the South Marston chief is refusing to reveal the identity of the departing members of his squad.

Webb said: “We’ve let one or two players go and that means that we’ll have to look to recruit – in reality, it happened a couple of weeks ago.

“They just weren’t acting in the way that we expect and we’re not going to tolerate what they did. I’m only interested in having players that want to play for Swindon Supermarine and want to act in the right way.

“I’m not going to say who they are – they know who they are and I’m sure they’ll go off to other clubs that will have them.”

Marine endured a disappointing first week of the season, losing 2-0 at Didcot Town last weekend before being hammered 4-0 by Yate Town at the Webb’s Wood Stadium on Tuesday evening, with captain Dave Bampton receiving a straight red card for an alleged stamp.

“Losing the first two games of the season is uncharted territory for me in my two seasons as manager of Swindon Supermarine football club,” said Webb.

“The players are disappointed and so are the staff and the people that come to watch us. We need to try and get that elusive win against Shortwood.

“There have been a lot of changes in terms of the players that have come in and out of the squad but we’ve got to be resolute.”