Big week ahead as Hucknall Town aim for nine home points from three games

With Grantham Town to follow on Wednesday, Saturday's visit of third-placed Newark Town could not be any bigger with Hucknall a place and a point behind them but with three games in hand.

“The next week is pretty crucial. If we can take the full nine points I will be more than happy,” said Yellows manager Andy Ingle as his side roared back from a 'blip' of only one point from two games to win 3-0 away at Kirby Muxloe last Saturday.

“That's is the target for me personally but the lads know to focus on one game at a time – it has served us well up to now and we will continue to do that.

“I think that has helped us through the blip, if you want to call it that, as we've not looked any further. We have just gone onto the training field and sorted what we needed to.

“The lads have been working really hard and stuck to it. They have not let anything bother them or been downbeat about any results. We are in a good place and we just have to keep going.”

With so many away games due to the stadium move before Christmas, Hucknall will now resume catching up on their home fixtures.

“We had just got into a good spell at home then the cold bad weather broke the run. I actually think that is what knocked us off track – we got that break we didn't expect,” said Ingle.

“Hopefully in the next three home games we can get back onto a good path again.”

On Newark, he said: “We went to their place and did a job there. But they have been doing really well - and we are not doing too bad either. Credit to their gaffer, he says we are the best team they've played all season.

“But we won't take anything for granted – we never do.

“We just have to keep going to the end. I think it will be a good game of football. In some ways they play similar to us – they like to play football.

“It has done well for them and climbed them up the table. They have persevered with what they want to do, and likewise have we, so hopefully it will be a good game.

“We are waiting on captain Aaron Short, who has a problem with his foot. He has done some training this week and we will have to see if he can make the squad.

“We just have one other player away on holiday and the rest fully fit.”

At Kirby, Keiran Knight broke the deadlock on 53 minutes, before Trevell Lindo doubled that with his first touch and fellow sub Aaron Lamb made it 3-0 in added time.

“We left it a bit late in the day but we just persevered, carried on playing and got the result,” said Ingle.

“We rested a couple of the lads to the bench who have played a lot of games and give someone else a game, though they did come on later and one did score. But it was worth doing as sometimes you can go a bit stale and it gave some fresh faces a bit of a run.”