Just what the chairman ordered

Before the season started, the chairman said that he wanted a top-five finish in the league, a good run in the FA Cup and a good run in the FA Trophy.

So far, we’ve had a great run in the Cup, and were just five minutes away from getting into the first round. We’ve won three games to get through to the last qualifying round of the Trophy, and we’re just outside the top five in the league.

If we beat Chasetown in the Trophy on Saturday, then we’re in the first round draw with the Conference Premier teams. With the team we have, the good players we have and the amount of time we’ve been together, we should be looking to win.

We’re taking each game as it comes at the moment. We’ve been doing quite a bit of travelling recently. We were down at Telford for a midweek game not so long ago, and we were at Leek last midweek for our Trophy tie. We played at Farsley on Tuesday night, and next week we’re at Brighouse in the league cup.

We’re enjoying going to new grounds and facing new teams, and I think we can say the same for our fans. We had some great backing at Telford and Leek – for fans to go that far for a midweek game is tremendous. I think we’re all benefitting from exploring new horizons.

With all due respect to the Northern League, because we had some great times there, we’ve found that opposing teams are fitter and more disciplined. People have said that the standard of this league isn’t higher, but it is. Clubs have better squads, rather than a better XI, they’re better organised and they keep going right to the end of games.

There are five or six really good teams in the Northern League, but anyone can beat anyone in this league. We have had plenty of tough games.

I think we’ve only performed badly in two games this season. The first was the home game against Darlington early in the season when we didn’t get going at all and lost 2-0, and the second was the home game against Bamber Bridge, when we lost 6-1. In all the other games, I think we’ve performed well.

We really thought that we were going through against Telford in the Cup at our place. We were 2-0 up and five minutes away from going into the first round proper, and when they got back to 2-2 and forced a draw, the result felt like a defeat.

It felt different against Leek. We scored a late goal to equalise at our place, and when we went down there for the replay, we knew that we could get a good result, which we did near the end.

I HEARD about a knock that my old mate Ian Watson, my fellow The Northern Echo columnist, received for Darlington against Clitheroe at the weekend. Apparently, he was flattened by a blow to the face, which isn’t very pleasant when you’re on the receiving end, which has happened to me a few times. Happily, he was able to continue after treatment.

I know ‘Busted’ - or ‘Fuzz, as he’s known around the Washington area - from our days together at Hetton Lyons a few years ago, and it can only have improved his looks!

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