27th March 2006 - Harry - post Prescot

The clocks were turned forward on Saturday night but earlier in the day they were turned back when Spartans Manger Harry Dunn received the Unibond Team of the Month award on behalf of the Club. The last time the Award came to the Croft Park Club was way back in 1995 when who was Manger? – Mr. Harry Dunn!

With the issue of “time” in mind the first half of the game against Prescott seemed to drag a little. “Yes,” said Dunn “We were a little sluggish early on. But we have to remember that we are playing two games a week and we have had to make some long trips recently. But we did enough to win the game and to be honest I could never see them scoring.
We gave our stand-in keeper Archibald good protection and we deserved our win. I must thank Paul Baker at Benfield for his assistance in getting “Archie”. I had signed Andy Colling as cover but he broke a bone in his hand on Wednesday so I was running around like a scolded cat trying to find a replacement!”

He continued, “ We have plans to ensure we don’t run out of steam. I have discussed this with my Assistant Graham Fenton and we intend to review our League position soon and introduce a policy of rotation to keep players fresh. The lads will be told it won’t be a case of some being dropped – rather it being a case of resting individuals from time to time. You could see on Saturday how the introduction of Craig Price and Dale Crawford freshened things up for us. We have good back up on the bench and we will use this strength.

“The crowd of over 500 kept with us throughout the game and encouraged us on, which was great.”

Dunn added “The second goal was especially pleasing with Andrew Leason using his loaf when there were distractions in the play on the edge of our box. The ref didn’t stop the play so Leason bombed on and was able to provide a perfect ball for Robbie Dale to finish superbly. “Overall it was a good result especially bearing in mind how heavy the pitch was - when the lads took their boots off they must have weighed 5lb a piece!”

The match this weekend away at Witton Albion will not be easy. “They are always a strong side at home” mused Dunn. “They will be licking their wounds after we beat them well at home in January, plus Mosely up front for them will be a handful but I’m confident we can cause them problems at the back. And don’t forget their Manager will be stressing to his players the fact that they could still get into a promotion play-off place.”