IVYBRIDGE coach Lewis Paterson said Jordan Anderton deserved his chance to captain the club for the first time against Bromsgrove on Saturday.
Anderton, who was injured at the start of the season, led the club to a 30-28 win in the Midlands, despite suffering a nasty cut to the head.
After the match Anderton said: “It was an honour to lead Ivybridge for the first as captain and great to bring home the ‘W’.”
Paterson said it was always the club’s plan for Anderton to skipper the National Three South West side this season.
“Jordan was our assigned captain at the start of the year, but with his injury, the duties were given to Jay (Geraty), who was captain last year,” said Paterson.
“But we wanted to stick to our guns and give Jordan that opportunity.
“Jay is a big leader in our side, but it was an opportunity for Jordan, being the player and clubman he is, to do the role. He deserves it as he’s a very well-respected player at the club.
“He’s only just come back from injury. He was on the bench against Camborne, but it was his first league start on Saturday.
“He tweaked his knee in pre-season but showed good honesty, he didn’t push it or make it worse.
“I think it was after the Albion game that he just said ‘look it’s not right, I don’t want to make it worse’. He left it until it was 100 per cent again.”
Anderton might have just come back from injury, but he found himself in hospital on Saturday after his first game as captain ended early due a cut.
“Jordan split his head open and went to hospital to get it glued up,” said Paterson.
“He is fine, but I think they said if it was a centimetre bigger they would have had to use staples. It was a big old cut. It was a bit unfortunate, but he still had a very good game. He led well.”
Ivybridge, who host Newton Abbot at Cross-in-Hand this weekend, still have key players like Dom Loomes and Tom Scoles on the sidelines.
Devon lock Loomes tore his hamstring and suffered damage to his hip muscles in Ivybridge’s win over Salisbury in their second match of the season.
“We are still monitoring Dom,” said Paterson. “After a couple of weeks the bruise that came up on his leg was enormous. He’s just doing his own thing at the moment, taking his time. You don’t want to push something like that.
“And we have got good depth now.
“We do miss Dom Loomes – he is a massive player on the park – but we don’t need to rush him back. We want to make sure when he is back he is 100 per cent.
“Tom Scoles is back training, but he probably won’t be looking to come back until near Christmas time. He’s train, though, and looking quite sharp.
“Tommy Newman, who broke his leg playing in the development side last year, has just started his comeback and looking sharp.
“We also have more colts coming through. We gave a debut to Ben Collins on Saturday. He is usually a hooker but we had him as back-row cover and he did fantastic.
“He was full of energy. He’s the son of Malcolm Collins at Ivybridge College and is only 18, but it’s good to see us using that depth.”