Cinderford Town manager Matt Driscoll hopes that his side’s improved home form can be a catalyst to pulling off a shock against high flying Evesham United.
The Foresters have won their last two home games in Southern League Division One South after picking up just one point from their first 10 games and will be looking to continue their improved form on Tuesday night.
Cinderford defeated Shaftesbury Town 3-1 last Saturday at the Causeway Ground and Driscoll is hoping to use the elements to his advantage as he aims to secure another home win against United who have won five of their last six league matches.
“Our home form was really really bad, whereas last year it was good,” Driscoll said.
“When I used to play against Cinderford years ago it was a really hard place to go.
“It was always raining, it was always cold, people were shouting from the sides so we wanted to bring that back so from the start of the season it was a place where they could come and more or less guarantee three points.”
Town were bolstered with the new addition of former Hull academy prospect McCauley Power to add to their attacking options and improve the quality that Driscoll has at his disposal.
“He was with Hull Under-23s, COVID played a big part and he got released.
“He went to play in the Welsh Premier League and then he went down with an ACL so he was out for a while. McCauley came on at half-time and you could see he’s got some quality.”
Saturday’s win saw them move to nine points from the safety zone and their run of form which has seen them lose just once in six games as they look to complete the great escape.
It was a sense of frustration for Driscoll that Thatcham Town defeated Larkhall Athletic and Tavistock AFC defeated Bashley both by 1-0 that stopped Town from climbing off the bottom of the table which would have been a huge feat after their horrific start to life up in the Division One South.
“It’s massive, it was disappointing that we came off Saturday and we found the results after that the two teams above us minus Cribbs both won as well so it would have been nice on Saturday to have come off the bottom which we have been for a long, long time.”
Despite the nine point gap to 18th, Town have three games in hand over Shaftesbury while also having games in hand over Tavistock and Cribbs, but the former Aberbargoed boss refuses to get too ahead of himself.
“Those games in hands do not mean anything if we do not pick any results up, all the teams around us winning as well.
“We’ve got some tough tests with Evesham at home and Mousehole away which will be two really tough games as Mousehole are going to be in the play-offs, they are a really good team and Evesham are in the play-offs so we are going to be doing it the hard way.”
With the addition of Power and an improved run of form that has given genuine belief that the Foresters can survive the dreaded drop back down to the Hellenic League against all the odds.
“It’s exciting where before we were struggling to sign players.
“We are in a much better place so we will see what will be will be this season.
“We knew going into this season it was going to be tough we were favourites to get relegated so we just have got to prove everyone wrong.”
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