Football
Goode calls for fighting spirit

DROITWICH Spa manager Richard Goode has called on his side to come out fighting in tomorrow’s huge Midland Combination Division One home clash with Northfield.

Both sides are struggling at the wrong end of the table with Spa sitting two places above bottom of the table Northfield following their 1-0 reverse at Coton Green on Saturday.

It was a disappointing defeat for Goode’s men given their improved run of recent form but he is confident he will get a good response from his players tomorrow.

“I have absolutely no doubt I will get a positive reaction from the players for what is a very important game for us,” Goode said.

“I said to them after the game on Saturday that we have been in a lot worse positions, both position and performance wise, this season and bounced back and we will do so again against Northfield.

“We need to come out fighting and then express ourselves as we have done in the last few weeks and hopefully that will be enough to pick up the points.”

Goode admitted to being very disappointed by the Coton Green defeat but felt his side deserved something from the game.

“I was surprised how negatively they started the game to be honest and I don’t think there is any doubt we played the better football.

“Unfortunately though we were not able to take any of the chances that came our way and I’m sure if we had got ourselves ahead it would have been a different contest.

“They came out a different side in the second half and we ended up paying the price for a lapse in concentration. It was a hard pill to swallow for us but we have to bounce back.”

Northfield go into tomorrow’s contest with just eight points from their 19 games so far but assistant manager Mike Vaughan believes new additions to the squad will help their battle against relegation.

“We will carry on working to try and improve the squad. We still have a couple of injuries within the camp in players such as captain Ben Kirby and Adam Briggs, but they are now making steady progress for a pending return,” he said.

“I am confident we will stay up but admittedly we will have to play a lot better. There are 15 games to go and we know we need to get points on the board but I feel we are well capable of doing that.”