DARREN Manning says Luke Hornsley has a huge role to play after he rejoined Hullbridge Sports.

The striker left Basildon United and linked up with Sports yesterday, having left the club in September 2016 to join Grays Athletic.

But 17 months later he has returned to Lower Road, with Sports third from bottom in the Essex Senior League.

And Sports manager Manning says Hornsley will be key if his side are to beat the drop.

“It is a great feeling to get Luke back at Hullbridge,” said Manning. “I was always close with him and I was at Grays with him as well [when Manning was assistant manager].

“I class Luke as a good friend as well as an excellent footballer. When it come about that he left Romford [who he had been playing with under dual-registration rules] he told me he wanted to come and keep us up, I wasn’t going to say no.

“He has had a disrupted season and has played for Tilbury, Basildon and Romford already but he just wants to enjoy his football.

“I want to thank Basildon for releasing him and I am pleased he wanted to come here.”

Hornsley boasts an enviable goals record in the division - having netted 76 goals in less than 100 games in the Essex Senior League.

And Sports will need him to hit top form immediately as they bid to extricate themselves from the lower echelons of the standings.

A 1-1 draw at Barkingside on Monday night made it three consecutive draws for Hullbridge, whose form has improved since Manning took over last November.

And Manning said the game would have been a perfect one for Hornsley, in a performance that improved after half-time.

“I wish Luke would have been available against Barkingside as that was a game that was screaming out for a player of his quality,” he said.

“He always scores goals and if a game is tight he can do something to get us a result.

“I see it as two points dropped. We were atrocious in the first half and I lost it at half-time. It is the same things over and over again. We cannot keep being in a losing position at half-time as we are making it an uphill battle.

“I got sent off not long after half-time as I was still furious. But after that we were outstanding and it just wouldn’t drop for us in the box.

“But we have only lost three in 10 and one in the last six and now we need to turn draws into wins.

“We have some tough games in the next few weeks and we need to up our performance level. We know what we need to do and it is in our own hands.

“If it doesn’t go for us we have only ourselves to blame.”