It’s not over until it’s over. That’s the message from Darran Foster to his Daventry Town players as they enter the final stages of the season, writes JEREMY CASEY.
Although the Town boss accepts that a place in the Evo-Stik Division One Central play-offs come the end of the campaign is ‘unlikely’, he insists he and his players will be fighting to the bitter end.
And Foster is still hoping a new, relaxed attitude around Communications Park could yet pay surprising dividends.
Daventry maintained their interest at the top end of the table on Tuesday night, when Ashley Robinson scored a last-minute goal to seal a hard-fought 2-1 win at Barton Rovers.
It was Daventry’s second win on the spin following last week’s 3-1 victory over Slough, and with nine games left to play Foster’s men are in ninth place but 11 points off the top five.
“I said to the lads before the Slough game that to have any chance we needed to win all 11 or our games, and we have won the first two,” said Foster.
“We have Biggleswade on Saturday and then Guildford on the last day of the season, but apart from those fixtures the rest of our games are against teams below us in the table.
“I am not really holding out too much hope of the play-offs, because the top five just don’t seem to lose, they keep on winning and nothing happens until they play each other.
“But we can still get 83 points this season if we win all of our games.
“I have checked the record books over the past 10 years, and usually 80 points is enough to get into the play-offs.
“Now that might not be the case this season, but we will do everything we can.”
BRACKLEY TOWN
Jon Brady wants his side to get their shooting boots on as the go in pursuit of play-off glory, writes TOM VICKERS.
The Saints boss has seen his side’s bid to make it into the top five of the Blue Square Bet North hampered by four successive scoreless games.
Brackley have been beaten in two of those, but did claim a morale-boosting goalless draw at fourth-placed FC Halifax Town last weekend.
And Brady said: “All we can do is concentrate on winning our games. It’s in our hands because the other sides have to play each other.
“Our performances have been below par recently and not to score for four games must be a first for us.
“But we’ve had some long, tough trips in the past couple of weeks, to Chester, Guiseley and Halifax, and we’ve not conceded a goal in any of those games because we’ve been solid and strong.
“Being without players like Glenn Walker and Brett Solkhon hasn’t helped the creative side of our game and the cutting edge has been missing.
“We need to get that back into our game and start picking up three points again.”
CORBY TOWN
Chris Plummer is hoping Gary King can help solve the problem that has hampered Corby Town for a number of weeks now. The striker, who scored four goals in 14 appearances for the Steelmen towards the end of last season, rejoined the club earlier this week on a dual registration from UCL Premier Division high-fliers Spalding United. The 23-year-old had also been at Stamford before joining Spalding and his goalscoring record at both clubs has been good throughout the campaign. “He has scored goals for Spalding and for Stamford and while they may be at a lower level, he is full of confidence at the moment,” Plummer said. “He has scored at this level before and we are hoping he can help us with a few between now and the end of the season.”
KETTERING TOWN
Thomas Baillie has urged his Kettering Town players to ‘cut out the stupid mistakes’ when they head to St Neots Town for the first part of a quickfire double-header in the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division, writes JON DUNHAM.
The return fixture at Corby Town’s Steel Park takes place on Wednesday next week and Baillie is hoping his team will have learned the harsh lessons of last week when they were hammered 6-2 at home by St Albans City.
“What we have on Saturday, and next week, are two teams who do concede a lot of goals,” he said. “So it should be interesting to see how the two games pan out.
“From our point of view, we need to cut out the mistakes that cost us against St Albans.
“We created as many, if not more, chances than them on the night. But they made fewer mistakes and then they punished us for the ones we made.
“We have to bounce back from what happened in that game. But it won’t be easy because St Neots have a number of very good players.”
WOODFORD UNITED
Woodford United’s season hit a new low on Tuesday night when they were steamrollered 10-0 by play-off chashing Biggleswade at Byfield Road.
Paul Oddy’s men have suffered several heavy defeats so far this season, but Tuesday’s was the heaviest of them all.
Oddy’s young side were never in the hunt, and will now have to pick themselves up for Saturday’s trip to Leighton Town, but morale must be at an all-time low with United having lost their past three games to nil, conceding 20 goals in the process.
They have also conceded 37 goals in their past eight matches of a miserable season.
They are rooted to the bottom of the table, without a point from 32 fixtures.
Tomorrow’s trip to Leighton is the first of three successive away games, the others at Aylesbury on Tuesday and then at Ashford Town next Saturday.