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| Ian Long before the league match at Hereford earlier in the season. The game ended 1-1, with Long 'over the moon'. |
Alvechurch are battling it out with Hereford at the top of the league for promotion from the MFL Premier. Church Manager Ian Long has admitted that his side may struggle to win the league if the continue being so wasteful with spot kicks.
"Everybody was so disappointed the Monday game was postponed but now the next two games are crucial before the rearranged Hereford fixture," Long told the Redditch Standard.
"We’ve got to refocus. We want to make sure we’ve still got at least a five-point lead before we go into the Hereford match.
"We’ve won three in a row after losing to Boldmere and hopefully the seven-day break we’ve had will allow everyone in the squad to recharge their batteries.
"It’s going to be tough now with four games in a week but we’ve got a big squad and everyone wants to play."
As reported via BN's Twitter earlier in the week, Long felt that the bank holiday Monday against the Lilywhites could've gone ahead if the pitch had been inspected closer to kick off.
"The inspection was at 10am and we had had a lot of rain, but I went to the ground at noon and it had been drying up.
"We’ve played on worse pitches this season.
"It meant we’ve lost a few quid but I felt worse for all the people who had put in so much work.
"We’ve got to offer refunds, some people won’t be able to get to the new game and all the food was prepared so we will lose money."
Meanwhile, Ian Long's side have failed to score from four of their last five spot kicks, and is at a loss as to why the team is so profligate from 12 yards.
"You won’t win the title if you can’t take your penalties.
"We’ve let too many teams off the hook.
"But credit to the lads, they kept going to the end. We’ve scored a few late goals and that shows the character in the squad.
"We keep going and going, forcing teams to defend and they fall back and back."
The full article can be read here (link).