The confidence of youth is a much-valued commodity in sport and Wimbledon Hockey Club’s head coach Ben Marsden reckons they have found a rich reserve of the stuff.

The club’s latest acquisition, Blake Govers, flies in from Australia today [Thursday] to take his place in the Dons line up when the EHL Premier Division season resumes on Saturday.

As well as boasting a near- 70kmh drag flick, the 18-year-old scored 42 goals in 36 games in last season’s Sydney Premier League and Sydney Cup – putting him second only to Aussie legend Ron Riley in the competitions’ all-time goal-scoring stakes.

And after a tough winter break for Dons, the Australian represents a ray of sunshine for Marsden.

Since Christmas, he has lost Michael Hoare to a broken hand, while Phil Roper is continuing his recovery from knee surgery.

There is no timeframe for the pair’s return, and both England internationals will miss Saturday’s trip to Brooklands MU.

Yet Marsden feels that Govers will supply the finishing touch to an already strong Wimbledon side.

He said: “Blake is great around the circle, he is a tried and tested finisher and every team would love to have that kind of player in their squad.

“We’re very glad to have him here.”

He added: “He is strong with the ball and is joining the club to help ease the injury issues and improve our team.”

While Dons have shown they are a solid outfit, with the division’s second best defence, they are the only side in the top four without a name in the top five of the goal-scoring charts.

The addition of a reliable source of goals may help them overturn the one point gap to Beeston in third, and perhaps go further in the second half of the season.

Marsden said: “Everyone knows that we need to work hard week in week out, make sure we stay humble and not get carried away.

“But the dream for us is to be in the play-offs at the end of the season and we are in a strong position to do that now.”