Ahead of Saturday’s home league match versus Bishop’s Stortford (3:00 KO), manager Tim Flowers has talked about our opponents and what lies in store. He starts with reflections on last weekend’s win at Redditch…
We come into this game on the back of a long awaited victory in the derby against Redditch – to do that in such comprehensive fashion was really pleasing. It was our best performance of the season – albeit we’re only four games in – but we totally controlled the game, from start to finish really.
We went behind against the run of play to a poor goal from our point of view but, in fairness to the players, they responded by just going back on the front foot- we scored really quickly afterwards and after we’d scored, we were comfortable. They had one shot that was miles wide late on and that was about it.
It was a terrific win – not just for the players but the supporters and the town too. They’ve waited a while for win in that game. We took good support there – it was a good sized crowd, over 1,000 in total, and it was a good turnout from our supporters, who were clearly delighted at the end.
That was fantastic, but we draw a line under that and move on to this Saturday – we’ve had a couple of sessions this week and there a few walking wounded, so we’ll have a head count beforehand. I’m pretty sure what my starting line-up is going to be.
Bishop Stortford’s manager Steve Castle is really experienced – he knows non league inside out and it’s going to be a really tough game. They’re going to come to us searching for their first win of the season, although only four games in.
We’ve got to start making our ground a bit more of a fortress than it has been in previous times – last year, our home form was poor. We got beat by Anstey at home this year, where we didn’t produce what I feel we should be producing. We need to make sure we start on the front foot and move the ball quickly and attack, without taking our eye off defending – that’s obviously what we did well at Redditch. Our shape against them was such that, when we had attacks and turned the ball over, we weren’t susceptible. We have to make sure we continue to do that and try to be disruptive when we’ve got the ball.
Bishop’s Stortford will obviously have different ideas – they’re big, strong and have some good players. They’ve got lads who are a threat at set pieces and boys who can handle a ball out wide and get them up the pitch. They play fairly narrow at times from wide areas and can put bodies in the middle of the pitch that can counter attack you, so we’ve got to make sure we’re right bang on our game. Like any other game in the division, if we’re not on it, we’re not going to win.
Our job is to make sure we are on it – start properly and fast – and try to set about our business.
I hope there’s a decent crowd for it to come and watch the lads, because the support is always massively appreciated. Our two home gates so far have been good – 750 for both – which, in the middle of summer and holiday season, is terrific.
We are just trying to win matches and get more people to watch us – if that happens, I get scope to try and improve the team; it’s as simple as that.
