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Sport

Folkestone Invicta defender Callum Wraight warned he must show more commitment if he wants to stay at the club

By: Steve Tervet

Published: 00:00, 17 February 2016

Callum Wraight is in the last-chance saloon at Folkestone Invicta after returning from a club suspension imposed for breach of discipline.

The 19-year-old defender scored one goal and set up another on Saturday after being handed only his second league start of the season.

Wraight is rated highly by Neil Cugley although his manager is running out of patience with a player who showed the club up during a loan spell at Whitstable.

Callum Wraight slides in to score for Folkestone against Sittingbourne Picture: Gary Browne

Failure to turn up for training and matches saw Wraight recalled and suspended by Folkestone, for whom Wraight also went missing during pre-season last summer.

But a calf injury to Nat Blanks has opened the door for Wraight’s reintegration, with Invicta’s first-choice left-back facing a month on the sidelines.

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Cugley said: "Callum’s got a future here if he knuckles down but you can only have so many last chances.

"If he lets us down again, that will be it and we wouldn’t bother with him.

"His dedication needs to be resolved. If not, we move on. Nobody’s big enough at this level to have special dispensation. It’s up to him to get his head down.

"We wouldn’t have put him on contract at Folkestone if he wasn’t a good player but he’s got to be more disciplined in what he does.

"Hopefully, he’s going to mature a bit. It’s quite a commitment in non-league for the money you get and he’s got to decide if he wants to put that commitment into his life."

Harry Smith and Ashley Miller congratulate Callum Wraight on his goal against Sitttingbourne Picture: Gary Browne

Wraight has made 29 appearances for Invicta since making his debut in 2014 but the loan to Whitstable couldn’t have gone much worse.

Cugley said: "He didn’t turn up for one game and dropped out of another so it didn’t look good on our club.

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"He was there for three months, didn’t play that much and didn’t turn up for training once.

"Something had to be done and we suspended him.

"But with how football is, you get a bit of luck and Blanksy gets injured. To be fair, he’s taken his chance and we think he’s a good player. He’s just got to be more dedicated.

"Football is now a lot about dedication and commitment and my players show that. We don’t want a person who’s not going to show that commitment.

"You can only show someone what they’re missing out on. Hopefully he’ll think about Saturday because he had a great game and might think ‘I want to be part of this’.

"He’s not a bad lad, don’t get me wrong, he’s just easily led.

"I’ve got a lot of praise for players at this level because they’re not over-paid, they train twice a week and stay in on Friday to get ready for Saturday’s game.

"Callum’s got to show that same sort of commitment."

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