Crows boss happy with recent results

CROWS boss Paul Attfield says he is hopeful his team have put their early season dip in form behind them after recording four straight wins last week.

He is particularly pleased with how his players coped with difficult playing conditions on Saturday at Holmer Green and says his side are now brimming with confidence.

“It was a good performance,” said Attfield.

“It was not an easy pitch to play on but, at the moment, we just look like a team that’s confident in everything we’re doing. It was a good collective performance with plenty of good link-up play and we were never particularly troubled.

“Football is a confidence sport. When we were losing games I thought we looked tight and edgy but hopefully that has evaporated now and to win four games in a week is good so we are doing ok.”

Royston now turn their attentions to another important league match at home to Kingsbury London Tigers on Saturday.

The London side have a couple of good attacking players in their ranks who have scored plenty of goals so far this term and, if it wasn’t for the large number of goals they have shipped at the other end, they would find themselves far higher up the table.

“Most London sides are technically very good going forward,” added Attfield.

“They are not great defensively and when we played them in the cup we could have possibly been seven or eight goals up by half time and won comfortably.

“We need to make sure we push them all over the pitch and with home advantage we should win the game.”

Attfield will be without two of his defenders for Saturday’s match at Garden Walk with Ashley Grinham serving a one-match suspension for racking up five yellow cards while Nick Mulvaney faces a far longer period on the sidelines.

The Irish centre-half requires surgery on his torn cruciate knee ligament and looks set to miss the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, Attfield also says he is not worrying too much about the form of runaway leaders Chalfont St Peter. The Saints have won all of their league games so far and, with only one promotion place up for grabs in the Spartan South Midlands Football League Premier, it’s looking increasingly likely they will be plying their trade in the league above next season.

“It’s a long season with 44 games,” he added.

“Colney Heath did the same last year when they won something like the first 10 games and ended up finishing mid-table. We’ve just got to make sure we stay in there and you never know. They (Chalfont) lost on Tuesday night and it’s unfortunate that it was a cup game.

“We have got some difficult games coming up and we can’t start worrying about what other teams are doing and we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves.

“It’s a very difficult league to get out of with only one promotion spot available but it’s the same for everyone.

“It’s frustrating that you can have a great season and finish with 90 points and still not get promoted and have to start the next season all over again.

“I spoke to the Aylesbury manager from the league above in the British Gas League and he says the standard is not that much greater.”