In The Dugout

Monday 27th February 2012

Gary Stones looked ahead to Stamford's remaining fixtures and declared: "Every game now is basically a cup final."

The assistant manager admitted that the Daniels' performance against relegation-threatened Quorn on Saturday was "not inspiring".

But he said: "At this time of the season, it's all about points. The display wasn't good but it's about getting points, getting into the play-off positions and keeping there.

"We knew it was going to be a really tricky game because Quorn are not a bad side. We had them watched at Belper last week and they played them off the park.

"I thought we controlled the game without being sparkling. We were disappointed with the tempo in the first half but in the second the lads came out and got a justified equaliser and the tempo was better.

"Playing 4-3-3 didn't suit us because the pitch was so narrow, so after half an hour we went  4-4-2, which helped us a lot and we got a lot more joy out of it.

"There weren't many chances for either side but in the last 10 minutes, they were putting a lot of pressure on us. Kris Nurse is quite a handful in the air, so we had to watch him, and they were putting long balls in all the time but, to be fair, our defence coped really well."

On Tuesday, the Daniels entertain Hucknall - and all the ingredients for a titanic struggle are there.  

It is, of course, the club that Gary and manager Tommy Brookbanks left early in the season and seven of Stamford's squad against Quorn are ex-Hucknall. In addition, Hucknall retain an outside chance of a play-off place and will be smarting from Saturday's home draw against Shepshed, when they let a two-goal lead slip late on.

Gary admitted: "It's going to be a bit of a battle but we know what they are like in attack and we've got plenty of pace in our team to trouble them."

He said the management were "well happy" with Stamford's situation at present.

"We've lost one in six, we've had three wins on the bounce and the results on Saturday went for us. That shows how teams are finding it - anybody can drop points at any time against anybody."

He said that nerves would naturally affect the squad in this crucial last period of the season but added: "We'll keep the lads down to earth. The main thing we've got to guard against now is over-confidence."

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All other comments from Tommy Brookbanks are in the "In The Dugout" section of the website...