There’s a tense battle developing in the lower reaches of the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central where AFC Sudbury gave their survival chances a huge boost at the weekend with a commanding 3-0 triumph over Stourbridge.
The result makes it four League games unbeaten for the Suffolk outfit and leaves them inside the bottom four by just a point as they move closer to a cluster of teams who sit nervously above the relegation zone with four games to go.
Saturday’s game couldn’t have started any better with Callum Page helping himself to a couple of goals to give them a 2-0 lead within the opening 20 minutes.
“We spoke before the game about starting on the front-foot and being positive,” said Page, who took his tally to three goals from the last two outings. “I was delighted to make a contribution and get a couple of early goals. In our situation, every minute of every game is vital.
“It gave us a platform to go on and get the three points, which is the most important thing. As a collective our work-rate and heart has been outstanding in recent weeks and the run of results we’ve been on has given us a chance to escape the drop.
“Four games to go and every one of them is huge now. We have to keep building on the momentum but at the same time not get too carried away and think we’ve cracked it because football has a habit of biting you.
“If we can maintain the standards that have seen us go four unbeaten, then we have every reason to believe that we’ll be able to add to our points’ tally. I am looking forward to the challenge that stands before us between now and the end of the season.
“The general opinion is that we have underachieved and underperformed this season, particularly as we started the campaign so well. Our work-rate can’t be faulted but there have been times when we’ve fallen short in terms of getting the result that we should have done.
“Confidence plays a big part and with our confidence high over the past few weeks, both the team and I have been able to show what we can do. This is a strong and competitive League, there’s a lot of travelling involved for us, but it’s exciting to be involved in because everyone is capable of beating each other, it’s so unpredictable.”
Confidence is something that fellow front-man, Joe Neal, can relate to. He started the season in fine form but then hit one of those spells that strikers sometimes go through where, despite his best efforts, he went four months without a goal.
“I got ten goals and ten assists within the opening 20-25 games of the season,” added Neal. “Then, all of a sudden, the ball just wouldn’t go in for me and the harder I tried, the longer the run went on.
“Any striker would be lying if they said that they didn’t care about something like that because we are ultimately judged on the number of goals we score.
“It’s typical because I got my first goal since November in the draw at Alvechurch last month and then just a few days later got another in our victory at St. Ives Town. That’s how it goes sometimes in football.
“The season has probably followed a similar pattern for the team in general; it’s had its up and downs but we’ve found some form recently and now we’re determined to end the season strongly.
“Saturday was a huge win for us, not just the result but the overall performance. Even though I didn’t get on the scoresheet this time, I was pleased with my overall display and it was nice to weigh in with an assist.
“We looked solid from back to front and created numerous chances; we could have won by an even bigger margin in the end whilst limiting Stourbridge to very few chances and dealing with their threat of long throw-ins and set-pieces very well.
“Every game now becomes bigger than the last and straight away our focus turned to this weekend’s trip to Hitchin Town. As Callum says, it’s one game at a time, that’s the way it has to be!
“We know what we need to do over these final four games. Our philosophy is to never get too high after a win and by the same token we don’t get too low following a defeat. We’ll stick together, keep working hard and see where it takes us.
“I’ll be doing all I can to play my part and end the season the way I started it.”
Following Saturday’s trip to Hitchin Town, it’s a home game against Spalding United and then an Easter Monday away assignment at Bishop’s Stortford before the season ends at home to Harborough Town.
IMAGE: @IR7VS
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