Witton next test as Tuesday night football is back
After our local derby at Hanley on Friday night we’re back under the lights again tomorrow as Witton Albion are the visitors to Buckmaster Avenue.
Our opponents tomorrow have been a bit up and down with their form this season. They’ve had a thumping 4-0 win over Runcorn and an excellent 5-2 win over Congleton on Saturday, but they’ve also been on the wrong end of a 4-0 thumping at Kidsgrove and were demolished 6-1 by Macclesfield in the FA Cup having done brilliantly to get to the 3rd qualifying round – one stage further than us.
The truth of the test we face tomorrow probably lies somewhere in between. Like ourselves, Witton have only played ten league games this season, so they will have their sights firmly set on moving up the table in the coming weeks.
And as we are entertaining league leaders Vauxhall Motors on Saturday, there will be an even greater onus for us to try to get some points on the board tomorrow. Having said that, we never seem to struggle playing against the top sides in the division!
Bakes has been able to name the same XI for our last three league matches which is quite an achievement.
Apart from the foot injury to our vice-captain Kyle Stubbs, we have had a pretty clean bill of health, which is a relief as we know that we need to look to create a little more competition for spaces.
It’s that age old challenge of finding the balance between having a slightly bloated squad and keeping the players fresh. A streamlined squad is fine while you’re free from injuries, but as we know from bitter experience when our midfield wascompletely decimated at the back end of last season – it can quickly change.
We lacked a little bit of cutting edge on Friday at Hanley and in some ways were a little fortunate that our hosts didn’t sneak all three points when they hit the bar and also had one off the line. However, what we do have in spades is a determination not to get beat – Friday night’s goalless draw was our sixth successive game without defeat.
If we can add a bit of creative flair to allow our dangerous forwards to fire with a bit more regularity, then we will soon start shooting up the table. Let’s see if that can start tomorrow.
Come on Castle!