Non-league: Club boss calls on players to end season on a high
Colliver is damning in his verdict of Club’s campaign, labelleing it ‘not good enough’ and wants his players to play out the final six games in the manner in which they have performed recently – starting at home to promotion chasing Coalville Town on Saturday.
“We need to find some momentum and consistency in the final few games,” Colliver said. “Overall I don’t think our performances haven’t been so bad.
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Hide Ad“I’m the first one to hold my hands up and say it isn’t good enough.
“But we’ve played against some good teams recently and in fairness I think we’ve competed quite well.
“One win in five – prior to Thursday night’s clash with Kidsgrove Athletic – is relegation form but we’re not doing a lot wrong in games.
“At the moment we seem to be getting punished for every little mistake.”
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Hide AdDespite his disappointment at the form, Colliver has praised the attitude of his players and believes they are on the right track this season.
He said: “They’re a good bunch. They want to do well for the club and they’ve given me their backing which is always nice for a new manager.
“They’re trying hard in games and keep going until the final whistle which is all I can ask.
“I don’t think we’re a million miles away. It’s just a lack of concentration at times that is costing us. At this level if you switch off you get punished.
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Hide Ad“It’s a relatively new team so you don’t get that understanding a team that’s been together for a while does. It’s about getting game time together on the pitch.”
Coalville have won four of their last five and will be looking to complete a league double over Club after coming from two goals down to win 3-2 in October.
Colliver is keen to ensure Coalville have to wait if they want to cement their play-off places.
He said: “They need three points to secure their play-off place.
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Hide Ad“They’ll want to do it sooner rather than later so they’ll come here wanting to get the win they need.
“But we’ll be aiming to make sure they have to wait a little longer.”
Jamie Gregory is expected to have recovered from an illness which forced him off early in the second half in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at play-off chasing Lincoln United.
Stocksbridge Park Steels boss Chris Hilton is hoping to take advantage of turmoil at troubled Daventry Town this weekend.
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Hide AdDaventry were unable to fulfil their Easter Monday game with Rugby Town and have also been hit by the resignation of manager Darren Foster.
The Northamptonshire side have subsequently resigned from the Evo-Stik League and have asked the FA to be placed at Step Six of the pyramid next season.
Daventry have lost their last 14 matches to plummet to 19th in the table, only two points above the bottom two.
“Daventry appear to be in a little bit of turmoil at the moment so hopefully we can go there and take advantage of that,” Hilton said.
“We’ll be going there with our strongest side.
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Hide Ad“Ideally if we get an early goal and have the game won by half time or early in the second half, that would allow us to give some of our senior players a rest ahead of the derby at Sheffield on Tuesday.”
Hilton is refusing to rule out a play-off place but admits it is a big ask to finish in the top five.
He said: “Mathematically it’s not impossible but realistically it looks very difficult.
“We’ve got seven games left. We’ll be trying to win as many of those as we can so we’ll see where it us. You never know.”
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Hide AdShaw Lane Aquaforce are closing in on leaders Stafford Rangers as they prepare to welcome mid-table Spalding United this weekend.
The Ducks are seven points behind the leaders with three games in hand following their Easter Monday win over Belper Town and Stafford’s narrow defeat at Chasetown.