Published: 12-11-2011

Programme Notes v St Neots Town

Written by Steve Bateman

Manager Steve Bateman

Our support home and away continues to be a big positive for us and it is fully appreciated by the management and players and is the envy of all the other teams in our league.

Steve Bateman

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Holloways Park for today's Evostik Division One Central league encounter against our visitors St Neots Town FC. I trust Dennis' team enjoy their brief stay in Buckinghamshire and have a safe return journey home later.

We come into the game in decent form and today will provide a stern test for both sides with regards to both clubs ambitions to gain promotion this season. St Neots were promoted to the league this season from the UCL as champions and like Daventry last year, have adapted to the challenge very quickly and are expected to be in the mix come April when matters are decided.

Last Tuesday was one of those evenings in football, that will be a factor in me calling time on my football adventure at some point. An awful display by the officials denied us another deserved three points and left our players and supporters bemused at what had gone on during the 90 minutes. I very rarely criticise officials publicly and keep my thoughts to myself but I'm still incensed by both the performance of the referee and in particular the assistant referee who operated in front of us for 90 minutes, some of which he spent taunting our substitutes. However there is nothing I can do about it and we will move on and focus on today's game.

I am expecting to have a full squad available to choose from today and I'm sure the players will be keen to channel Tuesday's frustrations into a committed and focussed performance against today's opponents who are a decent side and we will need to perform well to maintain our unbeaten run in the league. Next Tuesday we travel to another in form team in Northwood and the month of November will certainly test us and leave us with a strong indication of what we need to do to ensure we re in the mix come next April when it really matters.

To those that travelled to AFC Hayes on Tuesday I say a big thank you and ask that you all get behind us today and help push the team on to another positive result. Our support home and away continues to be a big positive for us and it is fully appreciated by the management and players and is the envy of all the other teams in our league. I hope to see you all at Northwood on Tuesday.