Eastwood joint-boss ​Ball is ready for a battle

Ball and Daryll Thomas saw their troops beaten 4-0 at high-flying Melton Town last weekend, that following a 3-2 loss to Selston two weeks previously in what had been Eastwood’s last match.

And Ball felt the quality Melton simply proved too much on the day.

He said: "Last week away at Melton was a tough test for us, the movement and the clinical finishing from Melton was an eye opener for the quality that is in this league and a good marker for what DT and myself will need to achieve to be successful at this level of football.

"We set up quite defensively on Saturday and for the first 30 minutes I think our game plan worked well. We were keeping our shape well and getting players behind the ball.

"The two goals between 30 minutes and half time have killed us in all honesty, and analysing them I think they were absolutely avoidable. The bottom line is if you switch off and allow strikers of the quality that Melton have too much space and don't get tight enough they will punish you.

"But we cannot dwell on past weeks too much with what is a huge game for us at the weekend.”

Eastwood go to Heather St John’s on Saturday, who are joint bottom with Selston, and although the Red Badgers are ten points ahead of the bottom two, they’re keen not to get dragged into a relegation battle.

Ball said: “We will prepare for Heather in training on Wednesday but the main message will be that we need to be prepared to battle and really fight for what would be three massive points.

"We are in no doubt that we have quality in the squad to get the three points, but as is normally proved in these types of games it will come down to wants to win the game more and we need to make sure that is us.

“Tyler Blake picked up an injury last week and we are unsure if he will recover in time for Saturday, but we are hopeful of bringing in some new faces again this week in the shape of another defender and possibly a striker.”

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