Friday, April 22, 2016

Long Hopes For Promotion As Runners-Up


Alvechurch manager Ian Long is hopeful that the club could be promoted even if Hereford top the league.

"Hereford are looking stronger as the games run out,” Long told the Redditch Standard.

“I’m probably clutching at straws but we are going to keep pushing them as long as we can.

“I’m drumming it into the lads to collect as many points as we can in case we get the chance to go up as one of the best runners-up.

“We could still amass 104 points, which would be nine more than when we would the title with the bulk of this squad with Tividale two years ago. We would be a bit unlucky not to go up if we get more than 100 points.

“It’s unfortunate we’ve had a phoenix club like Hereford in the league this season but hopefully we could both go up. I think we’ve shown we’re good enough and if we went up to the Evo-Stik we would make the league stronger. I would like to think we would be competitive.”

Alvechurch have been dogged this season by ten missed penalties, the latest 'miss' by Andy Parsons against Brocton last Tuesday evening.

“I can’t ever remember anything like it from any football team,” said Long. “I wonder whether it’s a record! It’s not one I want to remember.

“Andy Parsons’ kick was probably the worst of the lot. I couldn’t even bear to watch.

“Our penalty record has really cost us. If you look at those points we could have had, missing a penalty against Hereford and those other misses, we could have been level with Hereford and with two games in hand.”