Assistant manager Richard Colwell says the
Alvechurch squad are looking forward to their top of table clash at
Hereford this coming Saturday.
In some quarters it’s being built as a title decider but it’s simply not the case. Obviously it’s a big game for both teams you only have to look at the league table to see that, but there is a lot of football still to be played after this game and nothing will be decided on Saturday.
There’s no doubt that Hereford with their stature, revenue and big crowds are massive favourites to win the match and league title but that expectation can bring it’s own pressures.
We go to Edgar Street full of confidence but with non of the pressure or expectation that Hereford have and that could well work in our favour. We will just ask the lads to give it their best shot, work hard for each other and we can ask no more than that.
Even if we can pull off a surprise I think Hereford would still be favourites for the title due to the amount of games we have to fit in. We are under no illusion of the task ahead for the remainder of season win, lose or draw on Sat. We are going to have to play Saturday, Tuesday and a lot of Thursday’s which isn’t ideal especially at semi pro level where a lot of the lads have labour intensive work throughout the day. It is virtually impossible to maintain a level of performance playing that many games in a short space of time. You only have to listen to professional players and managers who despite being ultra fit moan at playing the occasional twice a week! Having said that the majority of players have been through something similar before, so we know what to expect and the one thing I can guarantee is we wont go down without a fight however difficult it’s going to be.
Back to Saturday’s game where we will be up against a big partisan crowd. Not many of our lads will have experienced a crowd this big or vocal before and we’ll will need to be mentally strong to deal with that, but we have big characters within the squad and I’m confident that we will not be phased by the occasion.
Both teams look to play football and I don’t see that being any different on Saturday. I believe both teams will rise to the occasion and provide an exciting game for the fans. I’m sure it will be fast and furious and played with plenty of passion and I just hope the match officials are strong enough to deal with a top of the table clash and 4000 + fans. Football should be the winner here and I don’t think anybody would want the game being decided in a controversial manner.
From our point of view it’s nice to see our crowds steadily increasing week on week, we’re obviously not in the same league as Hereford when it comes to support but for a little club like ours all the support you can get is much appreciated. Increasing a support base was one of the things we wanted to achieve when we took over and through results and good performances we’re managing to do that.
We have had a lot of interest locally for this game and hopefully we can put on a performance which makes them want to come back week on week.
To everyone travelling on Saturday have a safe journey and I hope you enjoy the game.