BISHOPS CLEEVE | IN THE PINK

Langworthy leading from the front

A run of just one defeat from their last seven games, including successive victories in their last three outings and four straight clean sheets, has thrust Bishops Cleeve into the play-off places.

And if people weren’t taking notice of them before, Monday’s 4-0 dissection of third-place Cribbs has sent out a clear message to the rest of the leading pack.

Helping himself to two of the goals on Monday was Ross Langworthy, who once more has led from the front for The Mitres this term.

“We put in the perfect away performance against very difficult opponents in treacherous conditions,” he told us. “Even in perfect conditions, a game against Cribbs is always going to be a battle as they have a renowned way of playing that is relentless and has brought them a lot of success, but we rose to the challenge all over the pitch, won the battle and our quality going forward could then shine through.

“Obviously, it was nice to get on the end of a couple that had been put on a plate for me but from back to front I thought we were outstanding and, as I say, that was a perfect away performance.

“The race for the final few play-off spots is hotting up and six points from six over the Easter weekend, without conceding a goal, has put us right back into contention. Saturday’s home victory over Bemerton Heath Harlequins was also hard-earned as they are another side who are still in and around things.

“There will no doubt be twists and turns, teams taking points off each other, weather challenges and games for clubs to cram in, so it certainly makes for an exciting end to the season.

“We’ve got 12 points left to play for and all we can do is grab as many of those as possible and see where it leaves us, as will the rest of the sides staking a claim.

“Last season’s ninth-place was the highest position the club have ever finished, which was a fantastic achievement, it showed us what we can do and we definitely used it as a marker to try and better it again.

“We said at the start of the season that we’d love to have a shot of making the play-off picture come the end of the season and knew that any improvement on last year would mean we wouldn’t be too far away.

“With four games left, we’ve still got that to play for, and that’s where we all wanted to be. We feel we’ve dropped some silly points this year but if you ask any team in the League, they’d say the same; it’s a tough League where consistency can be the biggest challenge and that’s probably why there’s so many teams separated by so little.

“Personally, I had my best ever season last year so it was going to be a tough one to match, I’ve not scored quite as many but my role has changed a bit and we’ve got goals coming from all over the pitch.

“The club is making tremendous strides off the pitch and it’s great to be matching that with League progress, finishing in a play-off position would be an incredible achievement for the football club so we’ll try to keep on doing what we’ve been doing of late and see where that leaves us come the end of the month.”

Bishops Cleeve face their final home game of the season on Saturday as they host Bideford before embarking upon three away trips to Frome Town, Bashley and Mousehole.

IMAGE: Bishops Cleeve FC

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