SOUTHEND United youngster Jon Benton is in line to make his first Great Wakering Rovers start after impressing on his debut.

Benton has joined Wakering on loan from the Shrimpers and caught the eye during his second half cameo in the Isthmian North defeat to Histon last weekend.

Wakering player-manager Steve Butterworth is deliberating whether to reward the 18-year-old playmaker with a place in the starting line-up for the FA Trophy preliminary round tie against Westfield tomorrow.

“We’ve got Jon on loan from Southend,” said Butterworth.

“Craig Shipman, who is on our coaching staff, recommended him and we got him in.

“We didn’t have competition for places in the attacking midfield role, so we wanted to bring someone in.

“After looking at our options, we thought it would be good to bring Jon in and he trained with us last Thursday for the first time.

“We brought him on in the second half at Histon and, from that moment, he was the best player on the pitch by a country mile so he will do well for us at this level.

“I think he will prove to be an asset and I might throw him into the starting line-up tomorrow.”

Wakering head into this weekend’s FA Trophy clash having suffered a 4-1 defeat to Histon.

All four of Histon’s goals came in the last 11 minutes of the first half and Butterworth was frustrated to see the infamous manager of the month curse strike again having picked up the Isthmian North gong for September.

“I’ve been told that it’s the first time a Wakering manager has won the manager of the month award in 20 years,” added Butterworth.

“It was pleasing to win it and I always knew September would be a good month for us where we could pick up a lot of points.

“We ended up with seven points from nine on offer and it’s always nice to be recognised with awards.

“I said to some committee members before the Histon game that I was hoping the curse wouldn’t strike but it did and that was disappointing.”

Westfield head to Burroughs Park sitting second in the Isthmian South Central standings.

And, having scored 23 goals in their first eight outings, Butterworth knows there will be no room for error against the free-scoring high-flyers.

“They have already beaten Hertford Town 9-1 in the league and FC Romanian 8-0 in the Isthmian League Cup, so they score a lot of goals,” admitted Butterworth.

“I don’t think we could have got a harder draw at this stage of the competition, but we have been scoring a lot of goals ourselves.”