No '˜mental issues' for the Bees although home remains sweet

Harborough Town will hope to take advantage of some home time to improve their United Counties League Premier Division standing.
Stuart SpencerStuart Spencer
Stuart Spencer

At the moment the Bees sit 17th in the 20 team section and are yet to pick up a single point from any of their seven away matches.

However, their home form makes much better reading with three wins and just a single defeat – against third-placed Pinchbeck – at the Harborough Town Community Ground.

Harborough boss Stuart Spencer insists his side have no problems with travelling but does admit a run of home games give his side a chance to climb.

“There is not a mental issue with going away – it’s just been one of those things,” Spencer said.

“We lost three away games to bad performances before we decided to make a change in personnel and we’ve been very unlucky in some other games – not least against Holbeach last weekend when we 100 per cent deserved something.

“We do need to get the monkey off our back and when we break the cycle we’ll be fine.

“But it is certainly not a mental problem.

“Having said that, you always target home form first and ours has been very good so far.

“We’ve had seven out of 11 matches away. Now we’ve got a block of six out of eight at home and we have to make sure we get some points on the board from them.

“I’m not going to hide the fact it has not been the start of the season we wanted – I would be a fool to do that.

“But a few wins at home and the momentum is better, the form is better and the outlook is better.

“The lads retain that belief and we are aiming to be stable at Christmas and then looking ahead to the second half of the season.”

Harborough entertain ON Chenecks this weekend before another home clash with Newport Pagnell a week later.

The positions in Division One look a lot healthier for Lutterworth sides Town and Athletic.

The latter beat Birstall 4-2 last time out thanks to goals from Josh Rapley, Sam Burton, Barnes Gladman and Alex Rhodes.

They will look to improve on their current sixth-place position when they head to Burton Park Wanderers this weekend.

Town are still joint-top with Anstey Nomads after their 5-0 demolition of strugglers Huntingdon Town.

Another hat-trick from Tendai Daire was added to by efforts from Marshal Keenan and Jordan Small.

Daire now has 19 goals in his 12 league appearances this season.

He will hope to add to that tally when he and his team-mates take on 13th-placed Birstall Social away from home on Saturday.